


Four Hands, Twenty Fingers

by Larry_Klaine_Stylinson



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Piano Teacher, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Angst, Bottom!Harry, Fluff, M/M, Masturbation, Smut, top!Louis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-08-06
Packaged: 2017-12-06 15:27:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 41,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Larry_Klaine_Stylinson/pseuds/Larry_Klaine_Stylinson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry Styles is seventeen when he decides to finally start taking piano lessons, which he's always wanted to do. He didn't expect, however, that his piano teacher would be quite so fit. Over the course of his lessons, Harry decides that there might be something more useful they could be doing with their fingers, and develops a few pesky feelings for the slightly older man along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know when I posted the last chapter of The Ghost in the Closet I said that I'd get this out within the next week and it's been, like, 9 days, so I apologize. But I was trying to get caught up on prompts (which I'm still behind on) But anyway, without further ado, I give you chapter one!

Louis Tomlinson was a nineteen year old Uni drop out. He'd gone for a year and realized it wasn't for him, and so he'd just decided not to go back. He didn't want to go back to living in Doncaster with his mum, because even though he loved her, he needed to get out and live on his own.

That was how he ended up in the small town of Holmes Chapel in Cheshire, working as a piano teacher.

He'd been looking for a nice calm place to move to and settle down in, and as he was researching, he'd found Holmes Chapel, and it looked absolutely brilliant. Little shops and nice warm looking homes. He'd driven there and taken a look around, and he knew it was the place for him. The whole town just had a nice cozy vibe about it. When he'd first moved there he'd gotten a job in a little grocery store, but the real reason he'd left Uni was because he felt stunted there. He just wanted to get out and pursue what he really loved, which was music. He also happened to love children, and that was how he had decided on teaching piano. He had taken piano from the young age of three, all the way up until he was fifteen and his teacher told him that he officially knew more than she did and there was no use taking lessons anymore.

And so he'd put an add out in the little paper in Holmes Chapel offering piano lessons to anyone who wanted them, and he got quite a few calls. Eventually, he was getting enough calls that he was able to quit his job at the grocery store and survive solely on the money he was making teaching piano.

The children all loved him, and their parents loved him as well. He was up to teaching three or four lessons per day, and he was nearly certain he'd taught every child in Holmes Chapel how to play.

Teaching wasn't what he'd always wanted to do. He'd once wanted to start a band and make it big, become rich and famous and all of that. And what child didn't want that? But now, at close to twenty years old, his dreams were becoming more realistic. He thought maybe someday he could start his own little piano school somewhere. Hire a few other teachers, maybe some who played other instruments; Make a business out of it. But for now he was quite content teaching the children of Holmes Chapel.

000

Harry Styles was seventeen and he'd always wanted to learn how to play the piano, but he'd never thought to ask. He figured he should have. His family had a piano sitting in their living room after all. But he'd never asked, so they'd never gotten him a teacher, and he'd never learned.

A few weeks ago, however, he'd been fiddling with the piano, getting frustrated that he had no clue how to make any of the sounds he wanted to make, and his mother had come in and asked him what he was doing. The conversation had ended with her offering to get him a piano teacher, to which he'd gladly agreed.

Now, however, as he sat at home alone waiting for the teacher to arrive for his first lesson, he was getting a bit nervous. Didn't most kids start learning these things when they were a lot younger? Like, ten at the oldest. Harry was seventeen. He should know a bit about piano by now, shouldn't he?

He was sitting on the couch, trying to focus on his homework as he waited for four thirty to roll around, but he ended up just biting on the end of his pencil instead, his mind running a mile a minute. His piano teacher would probably be some chubby, far too happy old woman who would end up giggling at him when he messed up, and he'd probably end up just quitting. Maybe he should just quit now and save himself the embarrassment.

The doorbell rang and his head snapped up. He got up from the couch slowly, walking to the door and pulling it open.

He was faced with a slender man, a few inches shorter than he was himself. He had caramel hair that was styled nicely atop his head and bright blue eyes that shown brightly in the late afternoon sun.

He must have had the wrong house, though Harry couldn't say he minded.

"Um, hello." He greeted, and the other man smiled.

"Hi. I'm Louis Tomlinson." He extended a hand.

Harry took it, shaking it firmly, "What were you here about?" He asked, wondering why the man wasn't leaving, realizing he'd come to the wrong house, or trying to sell him something.

"Looking for Harry Styles." Louis said. "We've got a piano lesson scheduled."

Oh.

"I'm Harry."

"Oh!" Louis said, sounding surprised. "I must say, I was expecting someone younger."

"And I was expecting someone older. And more....Womanly?" He said, the words coming out more like a question.

Louis chuckled, and it was a beautiful sound that rung through Harry's head even after it had stopped, "Not all piano teachers are adorable old ladies, you know? That's a grand misconception."

"I see that." Harry said. "Come in!" He said quickly, realizing they'd been standing in the doorway for far too long.

"Thanks." Louis smiled, making his way into the house.

Harry's eyes roamed over Louis' back, stopping at his ass, which happened to be rather magnificent, and Harry nearly choked on his own saliva. He took a deep breath, quickly diverting his gaze. Louis was his piano teacher after all. He couldn't just be checking him out like this, even if he was incredibly fit.

"Um." He cleared his throat. "Piano's right...Right over here." He walked to the piano, gesturing at it grandly like some lady showing prizes on a game show.

"Oh, wow." Louis said. "This is lovely. Where'd you get it?"

Harry shrugged, "Dunno. Mum's had it ever since I can remember. Is it really that nice?"

"It's absolutely brilliant. Nicest I've seen, and I've taught practically every child in Holmes Chapel."

"You don't sound like you're from around here, though." Harry commented, not sure if it was normal to have small talk with your piano teacher, but not really caring either way. "Your accent's a bit different."

"Doncaster." Louis said, his hands trailing across the piano as if it were some brilliant work of art that he was allowed to touch. "I'm from Doncaster. Moved here after I dropped out of Uni last year."

"You dropped out?"

"Yeah. One year of it and I'd had enough. Just wanted to get out into the real world and start living, you know?"

"Picked a strange place then, didn't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just...There's not much to do here." Harry shrugged.

"Plenty of piano to teach. And nice little shops to visit. I quite like it."

"I've just been here my whole life. Guess the novelty has worn off." Harry said. "I, personally, can't wait to finish school and get to Uni."

"How long have you got?"

"Just this year."

"So, you're what? Sixteen?"

"Seventeen." Harry informed him.

"Good age." Louis commented. "Let's get started on the lesson then, shall we? We've wasted nearly fifteen minutes now and you only get me for an hour."

Harry was pretty sure he'd much prefer just talking to Louis for the next forty five minutes, but his mum was paying for him to learn piano, not make a new friend, "Alright." He nodded. "What do I call you? Mr. Tomlinson?"

Louis chuckled, "You can just call me Louis. I'm only two years older than you, and if I'm being honest I think I'd be a bit creeped out if you started calling me Mr. Tomlinson."

Harry laughed, "Okay, Louis. Let's get started then, I guess."

"Alright." Louis cracked his fingers. "With the little ones I go with a bit more of a hands on approach, sitting on the bench and helping with the finger placements and all that, but if that would make you uncomfortable or make you feel stupid then I can just sit back and tell you what to do. It's up to you."

Harry had to think for a moment. Hands on with Louis did not sound unpleasant at all. But would Louis think he was daft if he said he'd prefer the hands on approach? Best just to leave it up to Louis, really, he supposed.

"Up to you." He shrugged. "However you're more comfortable teaching."

"Let's just go with what I usually do then, and if either of us ends up feeling silly we'll switch it up."

"Okay." Harry nodded. "Yeah."

Louis sat down on the bench before looking at Harry expectantly, "Well? Sit down. I can't very well teach you anything from over there."

Harry sat down on the piano bench next to Louis, and their thighs were brushing, and Harry really wasn't sure if he could do this. Why couldn't Louis have been a fat old woman? Why did he have to be so fit and charming and easy to talk to?

"Let's start with some simple scales, yeah?"

"Sure." Harry said.

"Okay. So you're going to want your thumb on middle C. You know which key that is?"

Harry felt a blush creep to his cheeks because no, he didn't know, and he felt rather stupid about it, "Um, no." He shook his head.

"Hey, I see you freaking out." Louis said. "Stop it. You're fine." Louis took Harry's right hand in his, placing it down on the piano and setting his thumb on middle C. "There you go."

"Thanks." Harry muttered.

"Okay, now just place the rest of your fingers like this." Louis said, placing his own hand on the keys an octave down from where Harry's were placed. "See my finger placement?"

Harry nodded, swallowing hard, because Louis' fingers were really nice. Elegant, really. And Harry thought they'd fit nicely with his, if they were ever to hold hands.

"Good." Louis said, looking at Harry's hands. "Now you're just going to play a little scale, just like this.

Harry watched as Louis' fingers pressed down on the keys, moving along the piano.

"Think you can do that, Harry?"

Harry should have felt like Louis was being condescending, but he didn't. And he supposed it was because Louis wasn't. Louis was just used to teaching children and you had to speak to them in this way, and Louis seemed so genuine and so excited to be teaching Harry, and Harry didn't even feel stupid when he moved his fumbling fingers across the keys and messed up just a bit. And he certainly didn't mind when Louis took his hand and put it back in place, helping him to move his fingers along.

Harry briefly wondered how many of Louis' young students were absolutely infatuated with him. He wouldn't blame them. Louis was lovely. He shook his head, regaining his focus on the task at hand, which was learning how to play the piano.

Louis guided his fingers along the keys, and Harry easily picked up on what he was supposed to be doing. They ran that scale a few times until it was almost like second nature to Harry. They learned three more little scales and a few things about finger positions, and then the hour was up, and Louis had to go, and Harry really didn't want him to.

"Hey, Louis." Harry said, as he led his teacher to the door.

"Yeah, Harry?"

"Thanks for, like...Not making me feel stupid. I know most kids learn this stuff when they're really young."

"There are plenty of people who don't learn any instruments until they're adults." Louis smiled. "Of course I'd never make you feel stupid. You had a great first lesson."

Harry was pretty sure Louis was just saying that, because Harry thought he'd done a rather shit job of it today, but he was glad Louis was at least indulging him.

"Thanks." He smiled. "See you in a week then?"

"See you in a week, Harry." Louis waved as he walked down the drive, getting into his car and heading off to his next lesson.

Harry shut the door, sighing heavily and running a hand over his face. Having Louis as a teacher was going to be difficult.

000

Harry's mum arrived home from work around six, and Harry had already started work on dinner.

"Smells delicious, love!" Anne called as she came into the house.

"It should. I'm cooking it after all." Harry laughed as Anne came into the room, lightly whacking him in the back of the head.

"What are you making?"

"Just a bit of chicken and some alfredo noodles."

"Sounds absolutely lovely." Harry's mum said, sitting down on a chair in the corner of the kitchen and removing her shoes, rubbing her feet. "How was piano?"

"Good." Harry said, ignoring the way his heartbeat picked up just a little as he thought about Louis. "Teacher's really nice. You didn't tell me he was a guy."

"He's apparently the best piano teacher in town. Thought you would've just assumed."

"I didn't even know he existed." Harry said, shrugging nonchalantly as he flipped the chicken over and then stirred the pasta.

"He teaches all the kids. Quite a few people at work recommended him to me."

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "I think I'm his oldest student by a long shot." He laughed.

"Well, he's not much older than you, is he? Makes sense he wouldn't teach people my age."

Harry chuckled, because for some reason he thought Louis would be good at that. Teaching people older than himself.

"Mum, I saw you rubbing your feet over there. Dinner's ready and so help me, woman, if you don't wash your hands." Harry laughed.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going." Anne smiled, standing up and heading over to the sink

000

After leaving Harry's house at five thirty, Louis had had one more lesson for the day with a young boy named Hugh, who he absolutely adored. Hugh was a tiny little thing, just six years old, and very small for his age. He had brown eyes and black hair and he bounced around the house like he'd just eaten a bowl full of sugar. He giggled and joked, and he was a surprisingly good learner for someone so hyper. He could play three whole songs, Twinkle Twinkle, Three Blind Mice, and the ABC's, though Louis and Hugh's mum both knew that Twinkle Twinkle and the ABC's were the same tune, they never told him because he was so excited that he could play three, and when he sang the words (which he always did) they did become two different songs.

Louis was trying to teach him a new song today, but he'd learn a few notes and then slam his hands down on the keys and then start up with Three Blind Mice again. Louis assured his mother that she didn't have to pay him for this lesson since Hugh really hadn't learned anything, and Louis was kind that way, but Hugh's mother insisted on paying him anyhow.

Louis had ordered some Chinese food from a small place just a block over from his flat and then walked over to pick it up, figuring there was no use in wasting gas when it was a lovely evening in late Autumn. It was unseasonably warm for England in the Fall, and he went out in just a jumper and a light scarf, a beanie pulled over his ears. He was almost too warm.

He'd brought his food back home and sat down in front of the telly while he ate, but his mind had hardly been focused on the show, which happened to be Friends. He'd seen every episode of that at least three times anyway, so what was the point of really paying attention?

But he was very certain he wouldn't have been able to pay attention even if he wanted to, his mind drifting back to Harry, no matter how many times he tried to get it to stop.

When he'd arrived at the Styles' household, he'd been expecting someone much younger. Someone closer to eight or so, as that was the average age of the children he taught. What he had not been expecting, however, was the incredibly fit, awfully charming seventeen year old he'd ended up spending the hour with. For a moment he wished that Harry's mother had warned him about how old Harry was, but he then realized that he still would have agreed to teach him, never having expected such an instant attraction.

Harry was just easy to talk to. He was cheeky and he seemed smart and kind and funny, and if Louis was being honest with himself, Harry was quite adorable when he messed up his scales and that tiny little blush crept on to his cheeks.

But no. Louis couldn't think like this. Harry was his student and he had to stay professional about this. Had to keep his mind on teaching Harry how to play the piano. Because that was all his job was. Teaching Harry to play the piano.

His job was not to run his fingers through Harry's unruly curls or kiss his obnoxiously brightly colored lips. Honestly, he looked as if he was wearing lipstick and it baffled Louis to no end, because who just had lips like that? His job was not to hold Harry's large hand in his smaller one or cuddle up to Harry's side and play him a song. No. His job was to teach him piano, and that was all he would do.

For all he knew, Harry had a girlfriend. So letting his dumb little attraction for the boy get in the way of his teaching was a ridiculous notion to even consider.

000

After dinner Harry had done the dishes, finished up the large amount of homework he'd failed to get done earlier in the afternoon and then tucked himself into bed.

He lay there, tossing and turning and trying to get himself comfortable, but it was no use. His mind was racing with thoughts of Louis and he wished it would stop. Louis was his piano teacher and nothing more. And for Christ's sake, he'd just met him.

Harry had never really had a boyfriend before, unless you count the one from when he was fifteen, but that hadn't turned out so well, as the boy he'd been dating had realized that he did not, in fact, like Harry, and that what he did like were boobs and vaginas, which Harry shuddered at.

Harry had never tried fingering himself before either, but he knew that he wanted to bottom. Ever since he was thirteen he'd known it. It was just one of those things that was programmed in to him, and he wondered if every gay man just knew this sort of thing, or if most of them had to try it out both ways before deciding.

Harry had no desire to finger himself, however. Because honestly, it creeped him out. He didn't want his own fingers inside him, he wanted someone else's fingers inside him. Someone else's dick.

His mind drifted to Louis again, and his elegant fingers that had caught Harry's eye on the piano keys earlier. The way they moved so gracefully. Harry's mind began to wander to dangerous territory, wondering what exactly Louis' fingers would feel like inside him, stretching him open slowly.

It didn't take long before Harry was hard, and he let out a soft, annoyed groan at the fact. He just wanted to sleep, but he wouldn't be able to until he took care of his growing problem.

He generally slept in the nude, so he simply kicked his covers off, wrapping a hand around his cock and pumping slowly. His eyes slipped shut, and his mind was suddenly filled with images of Louis from that afternoon. Harry huffed frustratedly, trying to think of anyone else. Anything else. Who was that one guy that was in a lot of the porn that he watched? He could just picture him. But try as Harry might, he couldn't get Louis out of his mind. His perfect hair and his angular cheek bones.

The pace of his hand sped up, and he bit his lip to keep himself quiet, not wanting his mother to hear him, assuming she was still awake. His mind wandered to Louis' perfect ass, and the way his fingers had felt against Harry's skin when he'd helped him to place his fingers on the right keys. His hips bucked up into his own fist, and he let out a loud puff of breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

He squeezed his dick just a little bit tighter, trying to remember exactly what Louis sounded like saying his name. His voice was higher than Harry's. Almost angelic, really, in its quality. Harry ran his hand up his shaft, running his thumb over the head and dipping into the slit. He let his mind wander to Louis' round bum again and imagined what it would be like to squeeze it while Louis was thrusting into him, moaning out Harry's name. He ran his hand up and down his cock a few more times, pumping it quickly and flicking his thumb over the head repeatedly, and then his hips were bucking up, stuttering just a bit, and he came hard across his own abdomen, Louis' name making its way softly from between his lips.

He laid there for a moment, breathing heavily, trying to slow down his racing heart. Once he could breath properly again he opened his eyes, reaching over onto his bedside table and grabbing a tissue from the box, using it to wipe himself clean before tossing it into the bin.

He pulled the covers up over himself, sighing contently, a small smile on his face.

This was certainly going to make next Wednesday's lesson awkward.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is pretty short and it took me so fucking long to update.

By Friday Harry's friends had caught on to the fact that there was someone on his mind. They all knew Harry far too well, and they could tell when he had a bit of a crush. They'd begun pestering him about it, and usually when he fancied someone he'd just tell them, but he wasn't too keen on the idea of telling his mates that he wouldn't mind getting fucked by his new piano teacher, so he just brushed it off, telling them he didn't like anyone and that they were going crazy, but they wouldn't accept that answer, and that was how Harry had found himself spending the whole weekend in, not wanting to go out and get bothered by his friends until he inevitably broke down and filled them in on the situation.

He had occupied his time by watching some dumb reality shows with his mum and cleaning around the house a bit, which made his mum happy. He'd played video games and spent some time on the internet. And if he'd wanked to thoughts of Louis a few times over the course of the weekend, then no one really needed to know. And if it was amazing each and every time, no one needed to know that either.

It was Tuesday night now, and Harry was eating dinner with his mum. His foot was tapping lightly under the table and he was more just pushing his food around on his plate than eating it.

"Something wrong?"

"Hmm?" Harry asked, snapping out of a small daze.

"Is something wrong, Harry?"

"Nope." Harry smiled. "What would be wrong?"

"I don't know. You just seem a little distant tonight."

"Just...Worried about piano tomorrow." Harry said, and that wasn't a lie, he was worried.

"Afraid you didn't practice enough?" Anne asked, giving him a look.

"Yeah." Harry said, shrugging a bit.

And that was a lie. Because he hadn't had anything to practice. Louis hadn't given him any homework or songs to learn. He'd run his scales a few times and that was all he really needed to do, and he felt confident in them. No, what he was worried about was Louis having some sort of sixth sense and realizing that Harry had been thinking of him every single time he had a wank since the day they had met. But Louis wouldn't be able to tell. He wouldn't be able to tell unless Harry made it obvious, so he'd just have to work on not making it obvious.

"Well, you should practice more." Anne said. "It's as simple as that, Harry. But it's only your second lesson, I'm sure Mr. Tomlinson isn't expecting you to be able to play Bach."

Harry chuckled, taking a bite of his food. He doubted he'd ever be able to play Bach.

000

All day on Wednesday Harry was having trouble focusing in class. He was biting his pencils and picking at his nails and tapping his foot impatiently. His friends were looking at him strangely, and at lunch when they were all sitting down to eat, they had all confronted him, asking what was going on and what he was so nervous about, and he told them it was nothing, but they wouldn't listen, so he switched tables. A few of them followed him, but he still wouldn't tell them what had him so anxious and so they gave up.

He usually wasn't too bad at Math, but today all the numbers were running together, and he was just glad they weren't having a quiz or something.

The final bell rang at last and he ran to his locker, grabbing all of his books and shoving them in his rucksack before running out to his car. It was times like these when he was glad he didn't have to take the bus, because if he had to spend one more minutes around the noisy teenagers he spent every weekday with he was going to explode.

When he got home it was around three thirty, so he still had an hour until Louis would be arriving.

He knew he wasn't going to be able to focus on homework, and so he went up to his room to just lay down and listen to music or something. Try and calm himself down.

Before he knew what he was doing, he had opened up his closet and was looking for something to wear. He was actually changing for his piano lesson. He felt rather foolish, but that didn't stop him from continuing to dig through his closet, groaning when he couldn't find anything he felt like wearing.

He really shouldn't be trying to impress Louis. Not in any way other than playing the piano well. But he couldn't help it. Louis was gorgeous and kind and he had bright blue eyes and elegant fingers and the voice of an angel.

As Harry continued digging through his closet he wondered if maybe he'd romanticized Louis over the week. Like maybe he would arrive today and Harry would open the door and he'd realize that Louis wasn't quite as lovely as he'd been thinking this whole time, and then maybe he could go back to being a normal teenage boy who wasn't infatuated with his stupid piano teacher that he knew nothing about.

He stumbled upon a pair of extremely tight black skinny jeans and decided those would do, along with a nice, deep blue, button down shirt with sleeves that stopped at around the middle of his bicep. He thought his arms were nice and he generally liked when his shirts framed the muscles there, drawing people's eyes to them.

He threw his other clothes off, leaving them in a heap on the floor, because he was a teenage boy and although he liked to keep his room tidy, he couldn't be expected to care at a time like this, because it was ten past four now, and Louis would be there in twenty minutes. He shimmied into the tight black trousers and quickly buttoned up his shirt, walking to the bathroom where he brushed his teeth, not wanting his breath to smell bad now that he knew how close Louis' face would be to his own. Sitting next to each other on the small piano bench didn't leave much room for personal space.

He looked at his hair in the mirror, shaking it out before moving some long curls to the side and out of his eyes. He took in his reflection and decided he looked nice, and he was just thinking about maybe putting on a little cologne when the doorbell rang.

Probably a good thing, really. Cologne would have been overkill.

He ran down the steps and to the door, throwing it open and smiling at Louis happily, "Hey, Louis."

"Hi, Harry." Louis smiled.

Harry stepped aside and Louis stepped into the house slowly. Harry realized then that he wasn't wearing any shoes. He didn't usually wear shoes around the house unless they had guests, and that's why he'd thought nothing of it, really, not noticing that his feet were bare until it was too late.

"You can, um." Harry began. "You can take your shoes off, if you want?"

"Oh." Louis said, glancing down at Harry's own feet. "No. No, I'm fine, thanks."

"Okay." Harry nodded.

Louis walked directly over to the piano and sat down on the bench, and Harry just stared for a moment, watching him as he walked away.

He had sort of hoped Louis would comment on how nice he looked, since he'd spent a lot of time figuring out what to wear, but he figured it made sense that he hadn't. This wasn't a date after all. It was a piano lesson. A piano lesson with a teacher who was very possibly straight and very possibly taken, and Harry shouldn't even be attempting to impress him.

As Harry looked Louis over, however, he knew that he definitely hadn't been romanticizing him over the week. If anything, he hadn't remembered quite how lovely Louis really was. His pants were tighter than Harry remembered, and his shirt was cute and stripey, his hair styled perfectly.

Harry walked over, sitting next to Louis on the bench and catching a glimpse of his bright blue eyes, and his breath caught a bit in his chest.

"Let's get started then, yeah?" Louis said, fidgeting a bit on the bench and causing their thighs to rub against each other very lightly, sending sparks through Harry's entire body.

"Sure, yeah." Harry said.

"Do you remember where middle C is, Harry?"

And if Harry lied a little bit just so Louis would take his hand and guide it to the right key, no one had to know, "No." Harry shook his head. "Sorry, I'm a bit useless."

"Honestly, Harry." Louis shook his head. "It's simple to remember."

He reached over, grabbing Harry around the wrist and then placing his thumb onto middle C, which happened to be exactly where Harry had remembered it being last week. Sparks shot up his arms, his nerves on fire at the feel of Louis' fingers wrapped around his wrist.

"Play the scales I taught you last week as a little warm up while I work out what we're doing this week, yeah?"

Harry nodded and began playing the little scales. He wanted to do well, after having pretended not to know where middle C was. He didn't want Louis thinking he was an idiot.

After he'd run through all the scales, Louis turned to him, "That was brilliant for someone who didn't know where middle C was just a moment ago." He gave him a skeptical look.

Harry simply shrugged.

"Alright. We're going to do some two handed scales now, alright? They're not too hard, because your hands are moving in tandem. I'm not going to try and make you move your middle finger on your left hand and your pinky finger on your right or anything like that just yet."

"Good." Harry said. "Because coordination is not my strong point."

"You'll get there."

He took Harry's left hand in his, setting it down in the correct place on the piano keys, "Okay. This hand goes here."

Harry nodded.

"Now, you're just going to move your hands along the keys. Same scales we've been doing, but when you move the thumb of your right hand, you're also moving the pinky of your left, and so forth. Make sense?"

Harry nodded.

"Go ahead."

Harry played all the scales he'd learned, but this time with two hands.

"Really good, Harry. Really really good." Louis informed him after he'd finished them all.

"I try." Harry grinned, and he saw Louis' eyes quickly dart away from his face.

"Let's start you on a song, yeah? Twinkle Twinkle sound alright?"

"Have I reverted back to my Kindergarten self?" Harry asked, though he was still smiling.

"Shut it. All my students are, like, seven, Harry. I haven't got any simple songs that aren't for little kids."

"Yeah, yeah. Just teach me how to play."

Harry briefly wondered how it was that he and Louis were comfortable enough together that they could have banter like this, but he didn't really care how it came to be this way, he was just glad that it was.

"Okay." Louis said, pulling the sheet music from his bag. "First let's work on reading the music, alright? I'll point to a note, and then you try and find it on the piano."

"Alright. Bring it on then." Harry grinned.

He got at least half of the notes wrong, and it was by accident, but the way Louis would take his hand and guide it along made him glad that he seemed to be so inept. Maybe being inept could work in his favor.

Once Harry finally got the hang of it all, Louis had him play the song once through without any help. He sounded like shit, he had the tempo all wrong and he was certain he hit the wrong keys a few times, but Louis was smiling at him when he finished, and he clapped a bit.

"Very good!" He laughed.

"Stop laughing at me, you wanker." Harry said, nudging Louis with his shoulder before slapping a hand over his mouth, because had he really just called his piano teacher a wanker?

"Harry!" Louis stopped laughing. "You can't just...You can't call me a wanker!" He said, but then he began to laugh again, and Harry uncovered his mouth, laughing along.

"Sorry, Louis, sorry." Harry said, placing a hand on Louis' leg absentmindedly.

"It's alright, Harry." Louis smiled. "But, um. Your time's up. I'd best be going, yeah?"

Harry nodded, not really thinking enough to remove his hand from Louis' leg. The older boy's breathing had changed a bit, sounding a little funny now, like maybe he was trying not to hyperventilate.

"Harry, your hand's on my leg." Louis said softly.

"Sorry." Harry said, shaking his head and pulling his hand away, standing up to walk Louis to the door. "Dunno how it got there."

Louis chuckled a little, his breathing seemingly returning to normal, "It's fine."

Harry walked Louis to the front door, and Louis stopped halfway to his car, "Practice that song, Harry! Try and remember where middle C is!"

"Yeah, yeah." Harry said, rolling his eyes. "See you next week, Louis."

"See you."

Louis climbed into the car and drove off.

And if Harry ran up to his room to have a quick wank before his mum got home, thinking of Louis, and the way his breathing had sped up when Harry's hand had landed upon his leg, well, no one needed to know.


	3. Chapter 3

After Harry's lesson Louis had quickly gotten out of there, driving to Hugh's house and hoping the energetic little boy could help him get his mind off of the slight electricity he had felt run through him at the feeling of Harry's warm palm resting against his thigh.

Harry was his student, and although Louis wasn't a teacher affiliated with a school, he still didn't think it would be right to fraternize with one of his students. It wasn't like it would be illegal or anything, but what sort of example would he be making for himself, really? All of his students, aside from Harry, were young children. What if word got out that he had become involved with a student and everyone just assumed it was one of the eight year old little boys or girls that he taught? His entire reputation would be down the drain. He couldn't risk it.

And on top of that, he didn't know anything about Harry. For all he knew, the curly haired boy with bright green eyes and a dazzling smile was taken. Possibly by a girl. So there was no use in letting the little sparks he always felt whenever they made any sort of contact get in the way of him doing his job. He'd just have to ignore them all and power through it.

When he arrived at Hugh's house the little boy jumped into his arms screaming, "Louis! Louis! Louis!" And Louis brightened immediately, his thoughts leaving him for a bit as he hugged the happy little boy.

"We've got to get you past Three Blind Mice today, yeah, Hugh?" He said.

Hugh nodded, and Louis pulled Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King out of his bag. It was quite a bit more difficult than Three Blind Mice, but he found that most kids took a liking to it rather quickly.

He sat down next to Hugh on the piano bench and helped him go through the music, seeing how much of it he could read on his own.

"What's this note here?" He asked, and Hugh played the correct note on his little piano.

They made it through the whole song and Louis had only had to correct Hugh a handful of times. He was quite impressed with how quickly the boy had learned how to read music, even if he did decide after they were finished that he was just going to play Three Blind Mice again instead. At least they'd started on a new song. And he had Three Blind Mice memorized, which was impressive in and of itself.

Louis got up from the piano bench, listening as Hugh played Three Blind Mice repeatedly, and speaking to his mum, Charlotte while he waited for the time to be up.

"You're sure you don't mind him just playing that all the time? I really feel as if it's a waste of your money. I haven't taught him anything new."

"You got him through Can You Feel the Love Tonight once, Mr. Tomlinson."

"Louis." He corrected. He always felt strange when people older than him called him mister.

"Right." She smiled. "I'm just proud of him for sticking with it. I'm sure as long as you keep coming by he'll eventually learn more. I'm not going to just stop paying you."

Louis smiled, glancing down at his watch and seeing that Hugh's times was up.

"Hey, Hugh." Louis smiled. "I've got to get going, bud. Good job today. I'm leaving this sheet music with you and I want you to let your mum help you work on it this week, okay?"

"Mhhm." Hugh nodded, swinging his little feet.

"See you next week, you two!" Louis called as he let himself out. It was funny how quickly his students homes seemed to feel like second homes to him. All of the families in Holmes Chapel were so sweet and welcoming.

He left the house and drove to a little shop by his flat, buying some bread and meats and cheese, because really he'd been eating too much take out recently and the least he could do was make himself a damn sandwich.

He wandered around the store, picking up the things he needed as well as a tub of ice cream, some vegetables which might come in handy at some point, and a bag of apples. He really ought to start eating better. Chinese and burgers all the time probably wasn't a great idea.

He drove home and made himself a sandwich, grabbed an apple and sat down in front of the telly.

As he was sitting there he couldn't help but think about how nice it had felt when Harry had rested his hand on his leg earlier, and he couldn't help but wonder why the younger boy had done it. Had it just been an accident? Or had he put it there on purpose, with some sort of hope of...What? What would he be hoping for?

Louis needed to stop thinking about it because he was going to give himself a headache and it didn't matter anyway. He wasn't going to let his relationship with Harry develop past the simple relationship of a piano teacher and his student. That was all they were and all they would ever be.

000

Harry had spent the entire week thinking about the way Louis' breathing had picked up when Harry's hand had come into contact with his leg. That had to mean something, didn't it?

It was Wednesday now, and Louis would be there any minute. Harry had stopped himself from going to change, because it wasn't like he looked like a slob at school, so why did he really need to change just for Louis? He was putting too much stock into everything and he needed to just calm himself down a bit and take things as they were. Just let things happen.

He'd been able to get himself to focus a bit more, reminding himself how important school was, and how if he managed to let himself fail then he'd never get out of this little town and he'd go mad. He really would. Because there was a whole big world out there and he wanted to see it. He didn't want to be stuck in the quaint little town forever. He wanted to go to Uni in London, if he could, and then maybe visit America. He wanted to go places and see things, and so he couldn't let his infatuation with his piano teacher get in the way of his school work. He simply couldn't.

He was finishing up the last problem on his Math homework when the doorbell rang. He finished scribbling the answer down and then went to open the door, smiling when he saw Louis' face. His eyes were particularly bright today, crinkling at the corners as he smiled at Harry.

"Hey, Louis."

"Hi, Harry." Louis said, stepping into the house and going to sit at the piano bench.

Harry thought it was nice that he felt comfortable enough to just come inside without Harry having to invite him in. He liked that Louis treated the place almost as if it were his own home.

"Your hair looks nice today." Harry said as he sat down next to Louis on the bench.

"Oh." Louis said. "Thank you, Harry."

Harry was nearly certain the older boy was blushing, but he couldn't really be sure. He didn't want to assume anything. Maybe it was all in his head.

"Have you been practicing Twinkle Twinkle?" Louis asked him.

"I have." Harry nodded proudly. "Mum had to help me read the music a bit, not gonna lie." He said, the sudden urge to slap himself in the face hitting him at the idiotic admission. "I just can't seem to get the hang of it, you know? It's confusing."

Louis nodded, seeming to understand, and Harry was glad that Louis didn't think he was an idiot.

"I memorized Twinkle Twinkle, though, so I should be able to do it without your help."

"Go ahead then." Louis smiled. "Unless you've forgotten where middle C is again."

"Oh, haha, very funny, Louis." Harry said, placing his fingers in the correct places on the keys.

He played the song, and he was pretty sure he'd done it perfectly, but he was waiting with baited breath to hear what Louis had to say, because he really wanted to impress him.

"That was amazing, Harry!" Louis smiled widely, his eyes crinkling up again and making Harry smile as well. "You improved so much from last week. I'm thoroughly impressed."

"Yeah?" Harry asked, his insides twisting up a little in giddiness.

"Yeah." Louis nodded. "Want to try your hand at Three Blind Mice? I've got a few tricks for reading music. I can't believe I didn't teach them to you sooner. I almost always start with those."

"Okay, sure." Harry said.

"Alright. So when you're working with the treble clef, you've just got to remember Every Good Boy Does Fine. E, G, B, D, F. See?" Louis said, pointing to the notes on the sheet music.

Louis taught him the difference between half notes and whole notes, and gave him a few other simple word tricks, and it was a lot for Harry to take in, but he was pretty sure he understood everything a lot better now.

"Does that all make sense?" He asked when he finished talking.

"Yeah, I think so." Harry nodded.

"Alright. Then try out Three Blind Mice, yeah?"

Harry made it through the majority of the song, going slowly at first and just trying to hit the right notes, not worried about the tempo or anything. Once he'd finished feeling out which keys made what sounds and figuring out how to read the music properly, he looked up at Louis, looking for a bit of assurance.

"You got all the notes right." Louis smiled. "Just try adding pacing and note timing now, yeah?"

Harry nodded, starting again from the beginning and making it through the song without messing up too much.

"That was really good, Harry." Louis smiled. "Really good. Just keep practicing, yeah?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "Alright."

"I've got to get going." Louis said. "But...Here's my number, okay?" He said, writing the seven digit number down on Harry's sheet music. "You can text me if you have any questions, alright? I'd be glad to help."

"Thanks, Louis." Harry got up, walking Louis to the front door.

"Alright. I'll see you next week, Harry."

"See you." Harry smiled.

000

Louis was pretty sure there was no reason for his stomach to be twisting up at the thought of Harry having his phone number. It was no different than when he would give his other student's parents his phone number. It was just in case Harry needed help. Little Suzie's mum called him all the time with questions about the sheet music or what exactly her fingering on they keys was supposed to be, so why should it be any different with Harry?

The answer was simple. It shouldn't.

It wasn't.

It wasn't different with Harry.

He arrived at Hugh's house, and was quite impressed with how he was doing on the new song, and Charlotte told him that Hugh had been practicing a lot. Once they'd worked on it a bit, though, he went right back to Three Blind Mice, and Louis and Hugh's mum both chuckled a bit. Time was almost up, and Louis decided to remind Hugh's mum about the recital coming up on Saturday.

Louis had decided that once every few months, he'd have a recital so all of the kids could gather together and share what they'd learned, and this Saturday was going to be the very first one.

It was going to be held in the big garden area outside his flat, which was often rented out for parties. He'd spoken to the man who owned his building last week and set the whole thing up, and he was really quite excited.

It was only then that he'd realized he'd forgotten to tell Harry about it. Damn.

When Hugh's time was up he told him goodbye, and accepted the big hug Hugh had given him. He then headed back home, where he made himself a sandwich and sat down in front of the telly, as he did every night.

When he was about halfway through his sandwich, his phone vibrated. It was a text from a number he didn't recognize.

To Louis: Hey, Louis. What was the little word trick for the spacing on the bass clef? It's Harry, btw.

Louis quickly saved Harry's number to his contacts and ignored the fact that his heart was beating just a little faster than he'd like.

To Harry: All Cows Eat Grass. :)

He probably could have gone without the smiley face.

To Louis: Right. Dammit, I knew that, I swear.

To Harry: Sure you did. Hey, I forgot to mention, I'm having a recital at my flat on Saturday. You're more than welcome to join.

To Louis: As much as I'd love to...I'd really rather not.

Louis could have just left it at that, but if he was being honest, he really didn't want to stop talking to Harry just yet. His mum had been busy with his sisters lately and hadn't had time to call and check in, and so he was feeling a bit lonely. He could do with a bit of a conversation partner.

To Harry: Oh?

To Louis: Yeah, just...I'll feel a bit ridiculous. I'm so much older than everyone else you teach and they'll all be better than me. I dunno. I just think I might feel weird with everyone else's parents watching me fail?

Louis' heart broke a little at that. Harry wasn't bad. Not in the slightest. He was just a lot older than the other kids, and the older you got, the more difficult it was to learn things like this, Louis was sure of it. But that didn't mean it couldn't be done, and Harry was learning everything just fine.

To Harry: You're welcome to drop by and just watch the little kids play.

To Louis: Promise you won't toss me on stage and force me to play Twinkle Twinkle or something?

To Harry: I promise, Harry. You can just sit back with me and drink lemonade and watch the kids play while their parents coo over them. (Not making any promises that I won't coo as well. I've taught them all they know. :p)

To Louis: Alright, fine. You can count me in. But you'd better save me a seat next to you. I don't want to be stuck in the middle of a bunch of crying mums.

To Harry: Deal.

He sent Harry another text with his address, realizing that was rather vital information, along with the fact that it was going to be in the back garden.

To Louis: See you Saturday, then.

To Harry: See you.

Louis knew he shouldn't feel quite so giddy. It wasn't like this was a date. This was probably the farthest thing from a date. But the fact that Harry had told Louis to save a seat next to him had Louis' heart rate picking up and he felt a little ridiculous. He wasn't fifteen anymore, for Christ's sake.

000

Harry smiled down at his phone, and his mum called him down for dinner.

He wasn't sure why he was so excited, but he just really couldn't wait for Saturday.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oops, little Hugh is ending up with a much bigger part in this fic than I had originally intended, but he's adorable, so who can blame me, really?

It felt like ages before Saturday finally rolled around and Harry was lying on his bed, listening to music quietly, anxiously awaiting two thirty. The recital started at three, and Louis' flat wasn't too far, but he figured it couldn't hurt to get there early, so he'd decided two thirty would be a good time to head in that direction.

His friends had asked him to hang out today at school yesterday, but he'd told them he couldn't. That he had a piano recital to go to. They all made fun of him for a bit, but he didn't really mind, because it was rather odd to be learning piano at seventeen years old. He definitely didn't regret the decision, though.

He tapped his foot along to the beat of his music, checking his phone every thirty seconds to see what time it was. When it changed over to two twenty he got up, walking into the bathroom and brushing his teeth before fixing his hair a bit until it looked presentable. He went downstairs, giving his mum a kiss on the cheek and telling her he'd be back later.

"Have fun at the recital, love!" She called.

"Will do."

He checked the text Louis had sent him with his address, making sure he knew where he was going before starting the car and heading off in the right direction. He got to Louis' flat just before two fifty, and he hoped he wasn't obnoxiously early. As he walked through the back gate into the garden he saw a small white piano set up on a stone pathway, along with some chairs in the grass. There were a few young children and their parents milling about, and Harry spied Louis setting some drinks up at the snack table.

He walked over to the older boy a little awkwardly, his hands in his pockets. He really didn't know what exactly he was doing here.

"Hey, Louis."

Louis turned to face Harry, smiling widely, "Hi, Harry. Glad you could make it."

"Glad you're not going to force me to play for everyone." Harry smiled.

"Of course not. Want some lemonade?" Louis offered. "Or some crisps?"

"Lemonade, I guess." Harry shrugged, hands still in his pockets.

Louis poured two glasses of lemonade, handing one to Harry as the rest of the children and their parents arrived.

Harry stood awkwardly by himself while Louis walked around talking to all his students and their parents and he sort of wondered what exactly he was doing here. This was just awkward, really.

Louis came over to him, handing him his half empty glass of lemonade, "Hold this for a second, would you, Harry?"

"Uh, sure, yeah." Harry agreed, taking the cup from Louis and holding it in his free hand.

Louis walked over to what seemed to be the 'stage' area, doing a little bit of an introduction, and then the first student took the stage. Louis came back over to Harry, taking the cup from him and then gesturing for him to have a seat. Harry chose to sit closer to the back, and Louis followed him, sitting next to him.

They sipped their lemonade, and they were silent. Harry was listening intently to the young children as they played. After about twenty minutes, a young girl, no more than ten, took the stage playing a bit of what Harry was rather sure was Mozart, and she sounded absolutely brilliant.

"Are a lot of them this good?" Harry asked quietly, not wanting to disrupt the parents all around them.

"No." Louis shook his head. "She's quite advanced. She had a different teacher before me, so she was already into playing a bit of the easier classical stuff when I got her. She's a favorite of mine, though. Quite an angel. Very witty, too."

"I can see why you'd like her." Harry nodded, wondering if he'd ever be that good.

She was rather adorable, too. Light brown hair that went all the way down her back, nearly touching her bum. She was wearing a white billowy dress, and Harry found her to be rather sweet looking. If he had children someday he hoped they turned out like her. He'd probably start them on instruments of their choosing at an early age so they wouldn't have to go through the embarrassment he was going through now, learning at seventeen.

A few more children played their cute little songs, and then a little boy bounced his way onto the stage, and Harry didn't think he'd ever seen anyone quite so excited as this kid.

"He's cute." Harry smiled. "What's his name?"

"That's Hugh. He's my favorite student. Not one of the more advanced ones, but simply adorable. I have him on Wednesdays right after I finish your lessons."

"I thought I was your favorite student." Harry pouted, entirely joking, because if he were Louis, he would certainly not be his favorite student.

"Hugh's just barely passed you on that front, Harry." Louis joked, nudging Harry's shoulder with his own.

Hugh began to play then, and Harry recognized the song. He should, after all. He'd been playing it for an hour or so a day since Wednesday. Three Blind Mice. Harry was struggling with it a bit, though. Hugh, however, was absolutely brilliant, and Harry threw his hands up in the air in defeat.

"What is it, Harry?"

Harry huffed, "You should've told me I'm shit at piano, Louis."

"You aren't shit at piano."

"Do you hear him? I can't play that song even half as well as he can."

"Well, I'd hope not, honestly. He's been playing it for a month. Keeps refusing to learn anything new. You're doing just fine. You've been practicing, right?"

Harry nodded.

"Then you're doing great. All you have to do is practice. That's all I ask of my students. You're not shit at it. You're just older than the rest of the kids and it's making you feel like you're shit, but you aren't, okay?"

Harry sighed, "Yeah, alright."

Hugh finished his song, bowing a little and bouncing up and down excitedly as everyone clapped, running off the stage and hugging his mother who was smiling brightly. Harry smiled at the little boy, and he waved at him from across the small garden, and Harry waved back.

A few more students played their songs, and then the recital was finally over. It had taken a little longer than anyone had expected, so most people were rushing out with quick thank you's to Louis as they went. Hugh and his mum, however, stuck around.

"Louis, this was so lovely!"

"Oh, thank you Charlotte." Louis replied before kneeling down in front of Hugh. "You did a great job today, bud. Try getting a different song ready for next recital, though, okay? Have you been practicing Can You Feel the Love Tonight?"

Hugh nodded happily, looking up at Harry, "What's your name, Mr?"

"Me?" Harry asked, looking at Hugh. Although, who else could he be talking to, really?

"'Course you." Hugh giggled.

"I'm Harry."

Hugh nodded, looking back at Louis, "Mr. Tomlinson, is Mr. Harry your boyfriend?"

Louis, who had been taking a sip of lemonade, spluttered a bit, "No, Hugh." He said, taking Hugh by the shoulders and smiling at him. "Harry's a student of mine."

"Well, I think he should be your boyfriend. He's got cute hair and I think he thinks you're cute." Hugh nodded.

Harry could feel himself blushing now, and he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Mr. Harry, can you be Mr. Tomlinson's boyfriend?" Hugh asked, his big childish eyes staring up into Harry's, boring into his soul.

"I don't think so, Hugh." Harry shook his head, trying not to let the sadness he was feeling at that fact show in his voice.

"Why not?" Hugh pouted.

"I can't date my students, silly." Louis said, tickling Hugh, who giggled and thrashed about a little.

Harry noted that Louis didn't say he wasn't gay. Good to know. Just...You know, in case.

Charlotte, who had been watching on in shock, took Hugh by the shoulders, "We'd better get going, Hugh. I need to get dinner made before your father gets back from his business meeting."

Hugh sighed, running out of his mother's grasp and hugging Louis tightly. Harry was surprised when he wrapped his tiny arms around Harry's waist as well. He hugged him back, though, smiling down at his black hair. Were all children like this? Harry couldn't really remember being like this. Maybe it was just a Hugh thing. Harry wasn't surprised he was Louis' favorite.

"We'll see you on Wednesday, Louis." Charlotte said, taking Hugh by the shoulders again and leading him out of the garden.

"I'd offer to stay and help clean up, but mum's probably got dinner waiting." It wasn't a total lie. His mum really probably did have dinner waiting, but mostly he just wanted to get out of there, the whole conversation with Hugh making him slightly uncomfortable.

"That's quite alright, Harry." Louis said, and it seemed as though Harry wasn't the only one blushing, a slight red hue tinting Louis' cheeks as well.

"I'll see you Wednesday?"

"See you then."

000

After Harry left, Louis cleaned up the chairs and snacks and hauled his little piano on wheels back into the building and up the elevator to his flat. He made himself some dinner and ate it, trying to stop himself from doing what he so desperately wanted to do, which was to text Harry.

After eating dinner he took a shower, and by that point it was still barely eight thirty, and he had nothing to do. He picked up his phone, skimming through his contacts. There weren't many, aside from his student's parents and his own mum. He didn't have too many friends back in Doncaster, and he hadn't kept contact with any of them, so texting them now might seem strange.

He passed over Harry's number a few times before taking a deep breath and typing up a message. He was going to regret this.

To Harry: Thanks for stopping by today. Hugh seemed to like you.

The reply came swiftly, and Louis wondered if Harry was one of those people who constantly had his phone with him, no matter what he was doing.

To Louis: He seems like the kind who just likes everyone. Doubt I'm special. Funny how he thought I was your boyfriend, though. :p

Admittedly Hugh probably did like everyone, but that didn't mean Harry wasn't special. He was special.

To Harry: Sorry about that. I don't know if that made you uncomfortable, or...

To Louis: No, it's fine, really. It's a great thing that he's so comfortable with homosexuality at such a young age. When I was his age, I didn't even know what gay was. Which is funny considering how I turned out.

Louis' heart jumped a little in his chest. How he'd turned out? Did that mean he was gay? Would it be rude to ask? Would he be crossing some line if he asked?

To Harry: Yeah, his mum and dad seem to be super cool about that sort of thing. Hugh's whole family is great. Good parenting and all that. I look up to them a bit, if I'm honest. ...How you turned out?

Well, fuck. He'd asked. Shit.

To Louis: That's wonderful. We need more people like that in the world. Yeah. You know. Gay.

It wasn't like Louis hadn't been attracted to Harry before, but knowing he was gay as well made everything a lot more difficult, because now he couldn't use the fact that Harry might be straight as a reason to let it go. He shouldn't have asked.

To Harry: Yeah, I agree.

Maybe if he just dropped the subject...

To Louis: Oh, so you're not going to tell me then? I see how it is. :p

To Harry: Tell you what?

Right. Playing dumb. Smooth fucking move, Louis.

To Louis: You know what.

What was this? How had this turned into a big conversation about sexuality? This was a completely inappropriate conversation to be having with his student and he'd told himself he wasn't going to do this.

To Harry: I am.

To Louis: Are what?

To Harry: Now you're just being difficult.

To Louis: So I'm difficult and you're gay?

Fuck.

To Harry: Seems that way.

To Louis: Alright then.

To Harry: Alright.

He waited ten minutes and after he got no response he figured Harry was done with the conversation. But what did this all mean? Was he just curious? Did he just not want to be the only one out between the two of them, or did he have some other reason behind asking him that?

Fuck.

000

Harry didn't know where his sudden boldness had come from. It was easier talking to Louis like this via text message, where he couldn't see those bright blue eyes boring into his. But wherever his boldness had come from, he had some new information that could come in handy. Maybe. Possibly. Hopefully.

Because Harry knew that as long as his piano lessons continued, his feelings for Louis weren't going to be going anywhere.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Geez, guys. I didn't even realize it had been nine whole days since I updated. My mind has been all over the place. Hopefully this was worth the wait.

Louis shouldn't have been nervous about this piano lesson. He wasn't the student, after all, he was the teacher. There was no good reason for him to be nervous at all.

Except that their was. Because knowing Harry was gay had made keeping his feelings at bay a lot harder for him, and he didn't necessarily feel safe letting himself spend time alone with Harry. He knew he wouldn't do anything that he would consider crossing a line, but he also knew that if Harry tried something, he probably wouldn't stop him.

He took a deep breath, getting out of his car and going to knock on the front door. Harry opened it a few seconds later and his curly hair was even crazier than usual, hanging down in front of his face, and he felt a strong urge to simply brush it aside, but he restrained himself.

"Come on in, Louis." Harry smiled, and Louis made his way into the house, heading straight for the piano bench and sitting down.

Harry came over to him then, sitting down next to him and grabbing up his sheet music for Three Blind Mice and putting it in place.

"Warm ups first." Louis told him, and listened intently as Harry played through his scales. "Good. Alright. Let's hear how you've done learning this one then."

Harry cracked his knuckles, focusing carefully on the keys in front of him, and then began to play. Louis closed his eyes, listening closely for any mistakes Harry may have made, wanting to make sure that he had the song down perfectly before moving on to another. From what Harry had said on Saturday it had seemed as if he was having a large amount of trouble with the song, but as he played it now, Louis would've had no clue. He sounded very well rehearsed.

"You've been practicing, haven't you?" Louis asked him, smiling.

"Yeah. Every day." Harry nodded.

"It shows, Harry. That was fantastic."

"Yeah?" Harry asked, pride showing on his face.

"Yeah. Care to learn Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" Louis asked. "If you can learn this one in the next week you might even pass up Hugh."

Harry chuckled, "Would I be your favorite student then?"

Louis' breath caught in his throat and he nearly sputtered, "We'll see." He said.

"Give me the song then."

Louis handed him the sheet music, and Harry was able to fumble through the entirety of it without making any mistakes at all note-wise.

"I see you've taken my tips on reading music to heart then?"

"Of course. I take everything you say to heart." Harry said, looking at they keys of the piano rather than at Louis.

There was something in his tone that Louis couldn't place, but it didn't quite sound like how a student would talk to their teacher.

"Play through the song again and get the tempo in there, yeah?" Louis suggested.

Harry nodded, and began playing, but he seemed to be having trouble figuring out the exact tempo, and his fingers fumbled and he grumbled frustratedly to himself.

"Harry." Louis said, and he stopped playing. "Here, let me play it through once, and then you just try to match it, okay?"

Harry nodded, and Louis played through the song once. When he was finished, Harry looked determined. He placed his hands back on the keys, and was able to figure out a bit of it, but then it all started to trail off and it went all wrong from there.

"Fuck." Harry muttered under his breath, and Louis really should not have been turned on by that at all.

"Here, Harry." Louis said. "It might help if you can just feel it out, yeah? Put your hands on top of mine and we'll play through it together."

Louis set his hands on the keys and swallowed hard as he felt Harry's hands resting on top of his. Harry may have been younger, but he was also taller, and therefore, his hands were larger. They were warm and comforting, and Louis just sort of stayed there a moment, forgetting that they were in a piano lesson and just reveling in the feeling of Harry's warm skin on his.

"Louis?" Harry asked, and Louis' head snapped up to look him in the eyes. "Are you going to play?"

"Yeah." Louis nodded, shaking his head a bit to clear his thoughts. "Yeah, of course."

He began to play and silently cursed as he fumbled a bit halfway through the song. Harry looked over at him, he could see it out of the corner of his eye, and there was a smirk playing on his lips.

When Louis finished, he looked over at Harry, who was looking at him, their hands still resting on top of each other.

"Not a very good teacher, are you?" Harry asked, grinning widely.

"I was a fine teacher until I met you." Louis said, annoyed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry asked, sounding confused and maybe a little hurt.

"Nothing, Harry. Just play the song." Louis said, sliding his hands out from beneath Harry's. "You'll do fine. Just play it."

Harry bit his lip, nodding. He began to move his hands across the keys, the tune playing throughout the room, and it sounded much better than it had the first time. Much, much better.

"Very good." Louis said when he was through. "I've got to be heading off to Hugh's now, but keep practicing and I'll see you next week."

"Okay. Yeah. I'll see you, Lou." Harry said, and Louis got up to leave.

Harry didn't follow him and wave goodbye as he usually did, and Louis couldn't help but wonder if he'd hurt him with his comment a few moments before. All he'd meant by it was that Harry had come along and turned him into a complete blundering mess of a person, but he couldn't very well explain that to him, and so he shouldn't have said anything at all.

God, this was ridiculous. He couldn't let Harry take over his life like this. He needed to be able to just focus. Work was work and Harry was part of his job. Nothing more. He was just part of his job and he needed to stay that way.

000

Harry wasn't sure what Louis had meant with that comment of his. He'd been sitting in front of the piano for fifteen minutes now, not having moved since Louis left. He'd just been sitting there thinking, trying to figure out what exactly Louis had been trying to say.

He'd said he was a fine teacher until he met Harry. Did he mean that Harry was such an awful student that he felt like a bad teacher? Or did he just not know how to teach Harry? Or had he meant something else entirely? He'd sounded flustered. Was he anxious about something? Maybe he was just having a bad day.

Harry decided he needed to stop thinking about it.

He got up and went to the kitchen to make dinner for him and his mum.

He found some steak in the freezer and put it on a pan, putting it in the oven to broil. He cut up some potatoes and cooked them in a pot, pulling them out and mashing them up, pausing in his smashing to pull the steak out, and then going right back to the potatoes.

The food had been on the table for five minutes when his mother arrived home, and she washed her hands, sitting down across from Harry at the table.

"How was piano today, love?" She inquired.

"Alright." Harry shrugged.

"Just alright?" Anne asked, raising a brow. "It's usually your favorite part of the week."

"Louis was in a bit of a mood today, I think."

"Well, if he's taking it out on you he's not a very good teacher then, is he?"

Harry nearly slapped himself in the face, because that's exactly what he'd said to Louis to make him snap at him. He'd teased him for not being a good teacher. Which wasn't even true. He was an amazing teacher. He'd fumbled a bit on the notes, and if Harry was being honest, he'd probably been the one to mess Louis up. His big, fat, clumsy fingers had probably twitched and caused Louis to press the wrong key.

"I was being a bit cheeky. Think he just didn't want to deal with that."

"Don't be cheeky with your teachers." Anne said, giving Harry a stern look. "I mean it, Harry. I don't care how young he is, you need to respect him."

"Okay, mum." Harry said, not feeling like arguing right now.

He did respect Louis. He had immense amounts of respect for Louis. Louis was a genius on the piano and had managed to find a way to make a living with that, and he was kind and good with kids. Harry respected the hell out of Louis. It was just that generally they could have banter as well. But not today, apparently. Or maybe Harry just shouldn't joke about Louis being a bad teacher. Maybe that was a sore spot for him. Maybe he'd been beating himself up about hitting the wrong key while he was trying to teach Harry, and Harry's comment had just been salt in the wound.

He decided that after he finished his homework, he'd text Louis and apologize. He felt like they were in a fight of some sort, and he didn't like it. He figured he was the only one between the two of them who really cared, but still, he needed to make things right.

000

After the lesson with Hugh, Louis was feeling much happier and less stressed about it all. Hugh always had a tendency to make him feel better with his high energy and his little smiles and giggles. He really was quite lucky that Hugh's lessons came right after Harry's, because he often left Harry's house stressed and more than a little frustrated. Mostly with himself. Solely with himself, actually. He needed to pull himself together.

He got home and made himself something to eat and then sat down at the kitchen table, not even bothering to go out to the living room and turn on the telly, because he doubted he'd be paying attention anyway. He figured he ought to text Harry and apologize.

To Harry: Look, Harry, I'm sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have snapped at you.

He waited a few moments, eating his food slowly, and then Harry replied.

To Louis: Oh, hey. I was just going to text you once I'd finished my homework. I need to apologize as well.

To Harry: Am I interrupting you then? You should get back to your homework, yeah? And you don't need to apologize, really.

He had nothing to apologize for. It was Louis who couldn't keep his personal feelings from interfering with his work.

To Louis: It's not a problem, really. I've just got a few Maths problems left to do. I'll be fine doing them whenever. And I do, actually. I set you off, you know? You wouldn't have had to snap at me if I hadn't insulted your teaching skills. But you know I was just kidding, right? It was just...Just a bit of the playful banter we get into during lessons. It makes them easier for me because it doesn't all feel so serious. But I'm sorry if I hit a sore spot. You're a great teacher, I hope you know.

Louis read over the message three times, trying to figure out how to reply.

To Harry: My teaching abilities aren't a sore spot for me normally. It was just...There was something different about the situation today, I suppose. And please, feel free to keep all of the banter in our lessons, because it brightens my day. I like how easy it is to feel comfortable around you, because I've had difficulty getting along with people my age in the past. And thank you. I'd hope I was a good teacher, otherwise my students must all have a second teacher on the side, because they're all brilliant. Except maybe that Styles kid. He's a bit of a pain in my arse.

Louis pressed send and regretted it immediately. He didn't need to be opening up to Harry like this, even if he did mask it with a bit of a joke at the younger lad's expense at the end. He was just going to make things more and more difficult for himself. He needed to keep all interaction between he and Harry completely work related. They couldn't start talking to each other on a personal level. It would just make everything more complicated.

000

Harry opened up Louis' text and smiled widely at his screen. Louis had trouble getting along with people his age? You'd never have known it the way he interacted with Harry. They got along so well. Harry felt a little bit special in that moment. And then here Louis was, back to their usual banter. So it seemed as though even when things got tense with them they both wanted to fix it quickly. This was good.

To Louis: So you get along better with children? And yeah, I heard that Styles guy is a right git. Completely horrible at the piano, and sometimes can make his teacher really mad, even if he feels awful about it afterwards.

Harry was still grinning when he sent the message. Texting with Louis had that effect on him.

To Harry: Yeah. Children and their parents. I don't really get along with adults too well if they don't have kids, for some reason. But kids are just so free spirited and they always speak their mind, and they like to make people happy, and they don't have to try too hard. And parents are just always so nurturing, and I like to nurture people, so we just get along, I suppose. And even if Styles is a bit of a git he shouldn't feel bad, and he's not horrible at piano. I won't have you talking badly about my students. :p

Harry chuckled at his phone. And who did that, really? Sure, people say 'Haha' and 'lol' all the time, but how many of them are actually laughing? Almost none. But Harry did, because Louis was funny. He was funny and he was nice, and Harry was starting to get a little bit angry about how great Louis was, because he was pretty sure he couldn't have him.

To Louis: Yeah, I suppose you're right. About kids and about parents. I've always loved kids quite a lot, too. Hugh was quite a little charmer on Saturday. :p But what if I don't like that Styles guy? Am I not allowed to say he's shit at piano even if he is?

To Harry: Hugh absolutely adored you. I say we steal him. I suppose you could say that Styles was shit at piano if he was, but he's not, so it's a mute point. And why on earth wouldn't you like him?

To Louis: Are you proposing we band together to steal a child? Shouldn't we at least get married first, Louis? :p Fine, maybe he's not shit at piano. But he's a right git, isn't he? Can you blame me if I don't like him?

Harry bit his lip as he sent the text, hoping that his marriage comment wasn't overstepping.

To Harry: Suppose that would be the proper thing to do, wouldn't it? How does a Spring wedding sound? I don't think he's as much of a git as you seem to think he is. I quite like Harry Styles.

Harry grinned so wide at that he was nearly certain his face was going to split in two.

To Louis: Alright, but you can't make me wear a pastel colored suit. I won't do it. Yeah, on second thought, you're right. Harry's kind of perfect, isn't he? He deserves his very own fan club.

To Harry: Wedding's off then. You have to wear pastel pink, and I yellow. That's the only way this thing is happening. But he does, don't you know? I'm the president.

To Louis: Pink is not my color, Louis. Especially not pastel. Hot pink, maybe. But pastel?! Oh, is that right? How did you get such an esteemed position, if you don't mind me asking?

To Harry: We'll see about that. :p Oh, I have my ways. You should get back to your homework, Harry.

To Louis: Fine. Don't reveal your secrets to me, you little sneak. I'll see you next week?

To Harry: See you next week, Harry.

To Louis: G'night, Louis.

To Harry: 'Night.

Harry went back to his Maths homework with a wide grin on his face that didn't go away for the rest of the night.

000

Louis set his phone down on the table and ran a hand over his face.

God, he'd actually done that. He had actually just joked with Harry about marrying him. He was an idiot. A complete and total idiot.

He hadn't smiled like this in ages, though, and he liked the feeling.

But he and Harry had been flirting, hadn't they? It had felt that way, and Louis really was not okay with that. No matter how happy it made him, they couldn't do that again. He had to keep things professional between them.

Louis was certain, however, that doing so would be harder than it sounded.


	6. Chapter 6

Louis was in his car on the way to Harry's and he was determined to treat him as normal. Just completely ignore the fact that they had been doing something that felt an awful lot like flirting via text message last week and just go back to their completely normal student/teacher relationship. He would push the fact that Harry was gay from his mind and just treat him how he would treat any other student. Well, maybe not exactly how he'd treat any other student, because Harry was much older than his other students. But like a student. He'd treat him like a student.

He pulled up outside Harry's house and climbed out of his car. He fixed his hair in his mirror and insisted with himself that he would've done that no matter whose lesson he'd just arrived at, because it had been a very nice day for early-mid Fall and he had driven with his windows down, and he obviously didn't want his hair to look a mess.

He walked slowly up the walk, and then knocked on Harry's door. Harry opened it a few seconds later, one of his large, dimpled smiles gracing his features.

"Hey, Lou." He smiled.

"Hiya, Harry."

Who said hiya? Honestly. Cheesy people, that's who. Which he supposed he was, a cheesy person. But he was being awkward. He was making things awkward and he needed to stop. He was here to teach Harry piano.

Harry gestured grandly for him to come into the house, and Louis smiled, unable to help himself.

"You seem quite chipper today." Louis told him.

"Piano's my favorite part of the week."

"I thought you were convinced you were shit at it."

Harry chuckled, "I am. Doesn't mean I can't enjoy it, though."

"You really like learning, eh?" Louis asked, setting his bag down next to the piano bench and sitting down.

"Something like that." Harry said, sitting down next to Louis.

And what was that supposed to mean exactly? If he didn't like learning then what did he like? Certainly not Louis himself, because that would be ridiculous and it would also not be alright. Was Harry sitting closer than usual? He felt closer than usual and Louis wasn't sure if he was breathing.

"Warm ups." Louis said.

"Did those before you got here so we could focus on the actual work." Harry said, smiling triumphantly.

"Still working on becoming my favorite student, are you?"

"I'll fight Hugh to the death for it." Harry said, bumping shoulders with Louis.

This still felt like flirting. That wasn't good.

"I'm going to sit over here in the chair, alright?" Louis said, getting up from the piano bench and moving over to the chair. Keeping his distance from Harry would probably be advisable at the moment. "I want to see how you do without me all up in your space, okay?"

"Yeah, sure." Harry said, and Louis could sense the slight disappointment in his voice.

Yeah. Definitely best to keep his distance for now. Harry was getting too attached, and if Louis was being honest with himself, so was he. So distance was key for now until they could both get past whatever feelings they had developed and just go back to being teacher and student.

Harry set up his music and began to play. Louis watched as Harry's long fingers glided over the keys, and Harry never ceased to amaze him with the progress he made from week to week. This song was a bit longer and a bit more difficult than the other songs he'd learned in the past, and his long fingers got a bit muddled from time to time, but all in all he'd done an amazing job.

"Really good, Harry." Louis smiled. "Let me give you a few tips, though, alright? Number one: When you're playing, keep your fingers curled a bit. Never straighten them out. I hadn't told you this before because you'd been doing it naturally, but when you struggle you tend to straighten your fingers a bit, and that's not ideal for playing. Keep a bit of a curve on them. And two: You lost the tempo a couple of times, yeah? So either buy yourself a nice metronome or just tap your foot. Tapping your foot should be enough. It's what I always do."

"Could you show me what you mean? About keeping my fingers bent?"

"Just...Just like this, Harry." Louis held his hands out in front of him in the proper position. "It's really not very hard."

Harry bit his lip, his eyes squinting slightly, "Okay."

Louis was pretty sure Harry had just been fishing for a way to get Louis to come back over to the bench. But he wasn't going to. He couldn't let Harry reel him back in. He was keeping his distance, and it would be better for the both of them, really.

"Try playing it again, hm?"

Harry played through it again, and then again, and then once more. Louis had him play it until he had it down perfectly. With Louis' guidance it didn't take too long. His lesson was nearly over by the time he was done, however, so Louis fished a bit of sheet music out of his bag.

This was a song he rarely taught the younger kids on the piano, because it didn't really hold their interest, but he was hoping Harry would know it. It was relatively easy to learn, though he expected it to take Harry longer than a week. They were reaching that point in the lessons now, where they'd work on the same song for a few lessons at a time.

"Here, Harry." Louis said, handing him the sheet music. "Look this over and try to learn it as well as you can before next week."

"Let it Be?" Harry asked, glancing over the page. "I love The Beatles."

"I should hope so." Louis said. "Everyone ought to love The Beatles."

"I've actually got a few old records of theirs up in my room. Mum got me a phonograph just for them." Harry smiled. "You can have a look, if you want."

"I've got to get to Hugh's." Louis told him. "Maybe another time, though, yeah?"

"Yeah, sure." Harry nodded.

"Learn that song!" Louis said, walking to the door.

Harry came up behind him, "I'll do my best. I'm used to you being here so I can work it all out at first, though."

"I'm not expecting you to learn this one as quickly as the others. It's a bit of a large step up in difficulty. But I believe in you, Harry." Louis gave him a big smile, waving as he walked down the footpath and to his car.

"See you next week, Lou!"

"See you, Harry!" Louis called, before getting into his car and heading off to Hugh's.

When he arrived, he was tackled by a tiny ball of energy with black hair and brown eyes too big for his head, and sometimes when he hugged Hugh it felt a bit like coming home. Maybe that was creepy, but he loved Hugh in a bit of a brotherly way, and it was nice seeing him each week.

"Mr. Tomlinson!" He grinned brightly.

"Hugh!" Louis said, mocking Hugh's tone a bit and causing the young boy to giggle. "Nice to see you, bud." He ruffled his hair, which was getting a bit long and hanging in his eyes.

"I've told him he needs a hair cut, but he won't listen, and I'm not going to force one on him." Charlotte laughed.

That was one of the many reasons Louis loved Hugh's parents. They were easy going and they weren't too strict. They were open minded and they wanted their son to turn out the same. It was a lovely dynamic to see, really.

"Hugh, buddy, don't you want to be able to see where you're going?" Louis laughed.

"I can see, Mr. Tomlinson!" He bounced up and down, taking Louis by the hand and dragging him to the piano. "Mum's told me I need to stop playing Three Blind Mice now because I'm wastin' your time. S'that true?" He pouted.

"It's a little true." Louis frowned. "Sorry, bud. I know it's your favorite. But don't you want to get really good, so you can start playing a bit of Beethoven?"

Hugh nodded quickly and Louis smiled.

"Let's hear you play Can You Feel the Love Tonight then, and if you've done really well, we'll move on to a new song, yeah?"

Hugh nodded again, the two of them plopping down on the piano bench. Louis listened as Hugh played the song expertly, and smiled when he finished, Charlotte joining him in applauding.

"That was brilliant, Hugh!" Louis smiled, tickling his ribs a bit. "Your mum made you practice a bunch, I take it?"

"Oh, he practiced on his own." Charlotte smiled down at her son. "He didn't want you to be disappointed in him."

"I could never." Louis told him. "That being said, I'm really proud of you."

Hugh grinned and kicked his little feet joyously.

Louis pulled some sheet music out of his bag. This was a song by some children's band that Daisy and Phoebe seemed to listen to a lot. His mum had mentioned them to him on the phone a few months ago and he'd gone and looked them up. All of their songs were simple to learn and were catchy. Hugh had probably heard them before as well, which was a plus.

Louis placed the sheet music down in front of Hugh, and he poked his little tongue out, looking over the notes and seemingly playing the song a bit in his head, as if he could make the sounds of the keys just by looking at them. After a moment, he was ready to play.

He stumbled through it, and Louis listened. It sounded mostly right, and Louis helped him on a few of the harder bits, and before Louis knew it, the lesson was over.

"I've got to get going now." Louis said, and his stomach growled.

"Are you hungry?" Hugh asked. "You should stay for dinner!"

"Oh, I can't." Louis said. "I wouldn't want to intrude. Your mum's too nice to me as it is."

"Maybe another time, though, Louis. I know you must miss your mum's cooking." Charlotte said.

"We'll see. I'd really hate to impose." Louis said. "I'd better get going, but we can discuss this more another day, yeah?"

"Of course, dear. And you know it wouldn't be an imposition. Hugh adores you, and you two get along so nicely. You're practically family to us, you know."

"You're too kind, Charlotte." Louis smiled. "I'll see the both of you next week."

"Hey, Mr. Tomlinson!" Hugh called as Louis reached the door.

"Yeah, Hugh?"

"Tell Mr. Harry I said h'lo. I miss him."

Louis chuckled, "Okay, buddy. Hopefully you'll see him next time I set up a recital, yeah?"

"Mhhm." Hugh nodded, prancing around the room to a tune playing in his own head.

"Bye, you two."

"Bye, Louis." Charlotte waved, a large smile on her face.

000

Harry had spent every second from the time Louis left to the time his mother finished making dinner working on learning Let it Be. It was harder than Louis had made it out to be. Then once he'd finished eating his dinner, he'd gone right back to playing, lying to his mum and telling her that he'd already finished his homework. She was skeptical, but left him alone. He just wanted to do well so he could impress Louis. He'd seemed a tad distant today, and Harry wanted to fix that.

He slammed his hands down on the keys as he messed up for the billionth time.

After taking a moment to calm down a bit, he pulled out his phone.

To Louis: This song is haaaaard.

To Harry: I'm sure you'll be able to pull through. Be strong. :p

To Louis: You didn't say it was going to be this difficult, Louis.

To Harry: I said it might take a few weeks. Oh, by the way, Hugh says hello and he misses you.

Harry chuckled at his phone. He wasn't sure why he'd made such an impression on Hugh, but it was nice to know that he still thought of him.

To Louis: I'm going to be complete rubbish next time you see me, I guarantee it. Hugh is such a lovely lad. Next time you see him tell him hi from me.

To Harry: You won't be rubbish. And I will. I'm going to get going now, but if you have any important questions don't hesitate to text me.

To Louis: Right. I'll talk to you soon.

Louis didn't respond after that, and Harry couldn't help but feel a bit sad that their conversation had ended so soon. Lately they'd been having much lengthier text conversations and he'd been finding out little details about Louis here and there, and he'd hoped this conversation would go in a similar direction.

Maybe Louis was just having an off day.

They'd be back to normal in no time.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is entirely unrelated, except for the fact that it happened while I was writing this: Do not try to eat spaghetti and write at the same time. You will spill spaghetti sauce on your couch. :(

Two months had passed, and Louis still hadn't had the time to stick around and check out Harry's collection of Beatles records. He was also still insisting on sitting in the chair rather than at the piano bench with Harry, and Harry wondered what it was that he'd done wrong. He hadn't been behaving any differently than he always had with Louis, so what had made Louis completely change his own behavior? Whatever the reason was, Harry didn't like it. He didn't feel as comfortable around Louis as he used to, and he just wanted the ease of their relationship -or lack thereof- back.

He'd taken five whole weeks to fully learn Let it Be, Louis suggesting that he take it a few segments at a time. Harry was certain he would have done better if he hadn't been worrying about his and Louis' friendship-thing. What even were they? They had definitely felt like more than student and teacher before. At least acquaintances, if not friends. Now, though, Harry didn't know.

After learning Let it Be, Louis had him try out Hey Jude. He was still in the midst of learning that one, working mostly on playing the chorus section during the lesson they were in now.

Harry would have thought that without Louis' body so close to his, he would have been able to focus better. But week after week he found himself fumbling more than he had towards the beginning of his lessons, and he didn't think the difficulty of the song had anything to do with it. He missed Louis. He missed occasionally feeling his breath puffing across his shoulder though his shirt. He missed the warmth of his body radiating through his clothes and giving Harry a sense of familiarity and calm. He just missed having Louis next to him.

Louis cleared his throat, and Harry stopped playing, turning around to face him.

"Time's up, Harry." Louis said. "You're doing well. Just keep practicing." He gave him a smile, but it felt forced, just as it had for the past two months.

"Yeah. I'll see you next week, Louis." Harry mumbled, turning his head back to face the piano, looking down at his fingers on the keys.

"Your mum's alright with you having piano on Christmas Eve, yeah? Hugh's mum has asked me not to come, because they've got family visiting. But I'll be happy to come teach you, if you want."

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "We haven't got anyone visiting this year. It'll just be mum and me."

"Alright." Louis nodded. "Christmas Eve is my birthday, you know?"

"No way!" Harry said, turning to face Louis again.

"Yep. Twenty years old." Louis said, tossing his bag onto his shoulder.

Harry frowned a bit, not sure what to make of the knowledge that Louis' birthday was coming up, but feeling like he should do something with it.

"So, I'll see you next week then!" Louis said, hopping up and walking to the door.

Harry followed him, waving a goodbye, although his heart wasn't really in it.

He'd been slumping around the house like an abandoned animal for the past few weeks, and his mum had taken notice, asking him if he felt ill, or if he was having trouble at school. He always just shrugged her off and told her he was fine and that he just hadn't gotten enough sleep. She'd give him a look, making it obvious that she didn't believe him, but she never pressed any further.

000

Louis had rather hoped that Harry and Anne would have some special plans for the holidays. Going out of town, or having some big family gathering. He just needed a break from seeing Harry every week. It was tearing him up inside to leave Harry alone on the piano bench and watch him fumble his way through the songs. And it was made even harder by the fact that he could tell Harry was upset by it. He could tell Harry wanted him there next to him just as much as he wanted to be next to Harry. But he had to stay strong. He had to stand his ground.

He made his way from Harry's over to Hugh's, and as soon as Charlotte let him through the door Hugh ran over to him, hugging him 'round the knees.

"Mr. Tomlinson!" He said, smiling, bouncing up and down on his tip-toes. And then suddenly his smile fell. "You don't look so happy."

"I'm happy, buddy." Louis smiled. "Super glad to see you."

"But you look kinda tired and like you wanna cry." Hugh commented.

And in that moment, Louis almost did cry. Because he'd been doing such a good job of hiding it. Or so he thought. But kids were always more perceptive than people more than twice their age.

"I'm alright." Louis assured him. "Just been a long day."

"Leave him alone now, Hugh." Charlotte said. "Just let him teach you so he can get home and get some rest."

"Okay." Hugh sighed, making his way over to the piano.

Louis sat down next to him, and they went through everything Hugh had been learning recently, and Louis was impressed, as usual. The lesson was over far too soon for his liking, as he would much rather have had something to keep him distracted from what was going on in his own head.

He got up and grabbed his bag, and Charlotte came over to him, resting a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you sure you're alright?" She asked him, and he gave her a small nod. "You still haven't been by for dinner. I'm not taking no for an answer. We'll arrange something once the stress of the holidays has passed, alright?"

"Thank you, Charlotte." Louis smiled.

"Anytime."

"See you after Christmas, Hugh." Louis smiled, getting down on his knees so he could hug the young boy properly.

Hugh sighed, "I want to see you before that."

"It's only two weeks, buddy."

"I know." Hugh said, his lips twitching slightly in discontentment.

"Happy Christmas to the both of you, and your husband, too, Charlotte."

"Thank you, Louis. A Happy Christmas to you and your family."

Louis smiled and gave them both a wave as he left.

000

Harry had gotten an idea, midway through the week, and after it had hit him, the rest of the week had seemed to drag on and on and on.

Harry had two copies of the album A Hard Day's Night. One of which he'd found at an old record store, and one of which his mum had somehow managed to find him, with all of their signatures on it. Now, the one with their signatures on it was one of his most special possessions, and he wouldn't dream of ever parting with it. The other one, however, wasn't all that important to him, aside from the fact that it had been the first one in his collection.

So, after thinking long and hard about what he could do for Louis for his birthday, he'd come up with the conclusion that he was going to give him his unsigned copy of A Hard Day's Night. He was also going to make him a cupcake. He was hoping Louis would take this as a peace offering, or an apology for whatever it was that Harry had apparently done to make Louis so standoffish.

He was in the kitchen now, mixing the ingredients for the cupcakes together in a bowl. He was only making enough for two cupcakes, one for him and one for Louis, seeing as he didn't need a bunch of leftover cupcakes, and he assumed Louis would be going home to visit his family for Christmas, so he probably didn't need nearly a dozen cupcakes either.

Louis would be here in just under a half an hour, so he quickly finished mixing the batter and threw the cupcakes into the oven. He cleaned up while they baked, and when they were done he pulled them out, waiting for them to cool. He was halfway through frosting the first cupcake when the doorbell rang.

Louis would just have to wait a minute.

He finished frosting the first cupcake and then moved on to the second, frosting them with great care, wanting them to be perfect. If he gave Louis a shitty cupcake he'd never forgive himself.

When he was done he set them on a plate and brought them out, setting them down on the closed piano, and then went to answer the door.

"Hi." Louis said.

"Hey."

"An apron?" Louis asked.

Harry looked down at himself, blushing profusely when he saw that he had forgotten to take off his mum's purple and pink striped apron.

"Yeah." He said. "It's mum's." He quickly removed it, crumpling it into a ball and tossing it over on to the sofa.

"I had assumed." Louis said, cracking a smile that seemed to be genuine for the first time in ages.

"Come on in." Harry said, stepping to the side.

"Having a snack on the piano before I got here, were you?" Louis asked, plopping down in what had become his usual chair.

"No, actually." Harry said, shaking his head. He sat down on the piano bench and patted the space next to him. "Come have a seat."

"Harry, I thought we agreed that I-"

"Have a seat, Louis." Harry said firmly. He wasn't going to let Louis ruin this.

Louis came over, sitting down next to him, and Harry picked up the plate with the cupcakes on it, handing one to Louis, and keeping the other one for himself.

"Harry, what-"

"Happy Birthday, Lou!" Harry grinned, hoping Louis would take this all well.

"You made these for me?" Louis asked, his eyes a bit wide.

Harry nodded, and Louis simply stared at the cupcake for a while before taking a bite.

"This is delicious." Louis told him. "Absolutely splendid, Harry. I wish I could bake half as well as this."

"You make the music and I'll make the food." Harry joked, and Louis laughed. It felt like things were almost back to normal. Almost. Louis still felt a tad hesitant.

"Soon you'll be able to make the music and the food, and then what'll I be good for?" Louis asked.

Harry resisted the urge to say 'Everything', not wanting to push his luck, and instead reached over and grabbed the record, which he had wrapped very carefully. He handed it to Louis, who looked up at him in shock.

"What's this?"

"Present."

"For me?"

"Is it someone else's birthday today?"

"Probably."

"You know what I mean." Harry sighed, thrusting the present into Louis' hands. "Just open it."

Louis slowly tore the paper off, looking at the album, his mouth hanging open a little, "Is this yours?"

"No, it's yours." Harry laughed.

"I mean...Was this one of yours?"

"Yeah." Harry shrugged. "The first one I ever got actually."

"Harry, I can't take this." Louis shook his head.

"Sure you can. I've got a signed copy up in my room."

"You've got a signed copy of A Hard Day's Night?" Louis asked, sounding as if he didn't believe him.

"Yep." Harry grinned cheekily.

"Where the hell did you get it?"

"Dunno." Harry shrugged. "Mum gave it to me."

Louis finished off his cupcake, shaking his head as he chewed.

"I hope you've got a phonograph." Harry said. "This would be a shitty present if you don't."

"Yeah, I've got one." Louis said. "I sort of treasure the thing."

"I understand that." Harry nodded.

"We really ought to start your lesson now." Louis said. "But you're showing me your signed copy of this album once we're done."

Harry turned around on the bench to properly face the piano, and so did Louis, not moving to his chair like he normally would have. Harry tried not to smile too brightly at that fact, and ran through his warm-ups. He then played the bit of Hey Jude that he'd been practicing, his fingers gliding over the keys with more ease than usual, now that Louis was back by his side.

He couldn't help but feel that this was the way things were supposed to be.

Once he'd finished playing, Louis smiled up at him, "You've been practicing more, haven't you?"

In truth, Harry hadn't been practicing as much as he should have been this past week, distracted with thoughts of his plan for Louis' birthday. He didn't want Louis to know that, though, so he simply nodded.

"It shows." Louis told him. "Play it again."

Harry began to play all of the bits of the song that he'd learned so far, and he watched out of the corner of his eye as Louis swayed a bit, eyes closed. Harry was pretty sure he could have watched him like that forever.

He was so distracted by Louis that his fingers stumbled a bit on they keys.

"Fuck!" He muttered, and Louis laughed.

"It's alright, Harry." Louis said. "Just start from the beginning again. I like listening."

Harry nodded, placing his fingers back over the keys and playing through as much of the song as he knew, not allowing himself to get distracted by Louis this time. When he was done, he turned to look at Louis, who slowly opened his eyes as if he'd been in a trance.

"Absolutely lovely."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Louis said. "Now show me this signed album of yours."

"Okay." Harry grinned. "Just...Follow me up to my room."

Louis nodded, and they both got up off of the piano bench. Harry bounded up the stairs to his room, and Louis followed a little warily behind him. Harry rolled his eyes and gestured with his hands for Louis to hurry up.

They walked down the hall and into Harry's room, and Harry tried to block out the fact that he had definitely wanked to thoughts of Louis in this very room. It hadn't happened so much recently, because he and Louis hadn't been getting on quite as well. But it had still happened, and now Louis was here in his room, and if he thought about it he was going to blush.

He was pretty sure he was already blushing, but he ignored it, walking over to his shelf where all of his records were set up nicely. He grabbed the one he wanted and brought it over to Louis, who had stopped in his doorway.

"You can come in, you know?" Harry said. "I'm not going to lock you in here and keep you as a pet or anything."

Louis chuckled, seeming slightly uncomfortable, and then came a few feet into the room.

Harry stood next to him, handing him the record, "Careful with it."

"Obviously." Louis said, taking it gently into his hands and examining the signatures on it, his mouth hanging open just a bit. "I'm so fucking jealous."

Harry tried not to laugh. He was pretty sure he'd never heard Louis use such fowl language before. Probably because Louis was generally putting on his best 'teacher' behavior when he saw Harry. He also may have had to hold back a blush as the dirtier part of his brain stored the sound away for future reference. You know, just in case he needed it for...Things.

"At least you've got an unsigned copy now, thanks to me." Harry grinned, maybe a little too pleased with himself.

"I do." Louis smiled. "Thank you, Harry."

Harry just grinned back at him, and Louis handed him his signed album back, and he put it back in place. When he got back over to Louis, he was caught off guard as he was wrapped in a tight hug. It only took him a second before he was hugging Louis back, smiling against his hair.

In all honesty, he had been expecting for Louis to maybe bit a bit more comfortable around him again after this. That had been his hope. His fear had been that he would make it worse. But he had never, not in a million years, imagined that he'd gain a hug from Louis from all of this. It was just a stupid record and a cupcake.

Louis pulled away from the embrace, quickly turning and leaving the room, and Harry followed him back downstairs. He watched as Louis picked up all his things and then he followed him to the door.

"Thank you again, Harry." Louis said, as he walked outside.

Harry simply shook his head, thanks weren't necessary, "Happy Birthday, Louis."

Louis smiled, "And Happy Christmas. I'll see you next week.

"See you, Lou. Happy Christmas."

Louis left, and Harry shut the door, smiling widely. He cleaned up the ripped up wrapping paper and the empty cupcake plate, and then his mum arrived home.

She took one look at him and smiled brightly, "Good piano lesson today?" She asked, obviously having taken in his joyous expression.

"Yeah, great." Harry smiled.

More than great.

Absolutely wonderful.

000

With the long drive to Doncaster ahead of him, Louis had a lot of time to think about what had just happened between he and Harry.

After leaving Harry's house he'd gone home, dropped off his bag full of sheet music and his present from Harry, loaded his luggage into the car, and set off for his mum's.

He'd been driving along, not letting his mind wander at first. Just listening to the radio. And then of course the song A Hard Day's Night had come on as he was flipping through the stations, because Louis' life was apparently out to get him, and there his mind had gone.

He hadn't planned on letting Harry back into his life as anything more than a student, no matter how sad it seemed to be making the both of them. But then Harry had to go and be all lovely and bake him a cupcake and give him the goddamn first record he'd ever bought, and Louis couldn't stay distant, he just couldn't. He wouldn't have been able to tell Harry no or shove him away, because Harry was obviously making an effort to get close to him again, and he didn't have the willpower to stop him.

They could be friends. They could be piano teacher and student, and they could be friends. They could talk to each other sometimes, and maybe hang out in public when it was light out so that neither of them could get carried away. That's all that could happen. Just friends.

And then there was the fact that he'd gone into Harry's room. That was definitely crossing a line that he'd drawn for himself. That wasn't even just crossing it, in fact, it was leaping over it. He'd leaped over the line and fallen flat on his face in doing so, and then he'd hugged him.

Friends spent time in each other's rooms, though, didn't they? And friends hugged. So it was fine. Because he and Harry friends now, so that was okay.

He stopped the car as he reached a long line of traffic, and he looked ahead, seeing a long train making its way over the road and down the tracks. He decided he'd have enough time to shoot off a quick text to Harry.

To Harry: I'm on my way to my mum's, so I can't chat, but I just wanted to say thank you again for the present. I didn't really deserve it, seeing as I've been such a twat lately. But thank you again.

He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he waited for the train to pass, and his phone went off as he waited, so he picked it up, reading the response from Harry.

To Louis: Don't have to thank me. It's the least I could do. And you haven't been a twat. You've just been...Weird. I'm hoping that's behind us now, though?

To Harry: Stuck behind a train, so you get one more text. :p Yeah, it's behind us. Friends?

To Louis: Friends.

The train passed just as Louis had finished reading the message, and traffic started moving again.

A huge grin spread across his face and it stayed there for the entirety of the rest of the drive back to his old home in Doncaster.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright. I know I promised some of you I'd have this chapter up ages ago, and I'm sorry it took me so long. But this chapter is a bit longer than the others have been, and I stayed up all night writing it. Like, honestly, it's 8am. The sun is up. I took 70 times longer to write than normal because I was half asleep. So hopefully this was worth the wait, my lovelies. <3

Louis arrived at his childhood home rather late. Too late for dinner, but not so late that he wouldn't be able to have a bit of cake with his mother and sisters in celebration of his birthday.

He got out of the car and grabbed his duffel bag out of the boot, throwing it over his shoulder and practically galloping up to the house in his excitement. He loved his new life in Holmes Chapel, and he would never even think of moving back home, but he'd missed his sisters and his mother and her home cooking, and it was so very nice to be back for a few days.

He went up to the front door, and rather than bursting in like he so very wished to, he knocked. He wanted them to wonder who it could be at this hour, although really deep down they'd know it was him. He wanted them to be curious and come to open the door and find him standing there.

He waited a moment, and then the front door was opening slowly, and there was Lottie, the eldest of his younger sisters, standing before him, one hand on her hip, and the other on the door. Her hair had grown quite a bit since the last time he'd seen her, and she looked surprisingly older.

"Lottie!" He beamed, dropping his bag to the floor and pulling her into a hug, squeezing her tight.

She made a small 'oof' of surprise, and then groaned, apparently too old to have her big bother hugging her like this. But then the facade passed and she hugged him back, and then Louis heard the patter of footsteps, and he pulled away from Lottie to see Daisy and Phoebe making their way towards him, running at top speed.

"Louis!" They shrieked.

"Pheebs! Daisy!" Louis shouted back, taking them both into his arms and lifting them off the ground. "I've been teaching a lot of little boys and girls that I think you two would like."

"Is that my son I hear?" Louis heard his mother call from the kitchen.

She emerged, along with Fizzy, wiping her hands on her apron. Fizzy ran to him, and he quickly set the littlest ones down, taking Fizzy into his arms.

"I've missed you, love." He told her as she squeezed him tightly.

"You'd better stand up and give me a hug right this instant." Jay said, standing in front of him, her hands on her hips.

"You've spoken to me every free moment you've had, woman." Louis laughed, standing up straight and wrapping his arms around his mother.

"I'm your mother, Louis." She said softly. "I could speak to you every single day and it wouldn't be enough time."

"Don't get all sentimental on me, mum. I've been in the house for all of five minutes."

"Come sit!" She said. "Fizzy and I have been working on your cake all night, and the girls have got to get to bed soon."

Louis ran over, plopping down on the sofa, and Daisy and Phoebe climbed into his lap, while Lottie and Fizz sat on either side of him. His mother went back into the kitchen and came back out with her apron removed, and a cake covered in lit candles. Twenty of them, to be exact. They all sang him Happy Birthday. When they were through, he closed his eyes, and made a wish. He wished that things with Harry could go smoothly, and that Harry wouldn't try to pursue anything more than friendship with him, unless he himself decided that he wanted that. It was a long and complicated wish and he figured if wishes ever actually did come true, that one would get confused in the translation somewhere and it'd be completely fucked. He opened his eyes and blew out all of the candles with one breath. Everyone cheered, and then his mother set to cutting the cake.

As the cake was cut, his sisters all grabbed their presents for him. His mum had a rule, no buying him presents for his birthday. They had to make the ones for his birthday, and they could buy him his Christmas presents. Louis personally liked the rule, because even as a child he quite enjoyed getting homemade things from his sisters.

Lottie handed him his first present, and he looked at the little hand made card.

It read:

"Dear Louis,  
Happy Birthday.  
Hopefully you can enjoy this on your car trip back to nowhere land.  
Love, Lottie.

No, Lottie, that was rude. He likes it in Holmes Chapel.  
Hopefully you can enjoy this on your car ride back to your new home.  
Also love, Fizzy."

Louis chuckled, smiling at the two of them before unwrapping it. It was a plain old CD in a case, and he flipped it over a few times in his hand.

"What's this?"

"Bit of a mix CD." Lottie told him.

"We didn't give you a track list, because it's a surprise." Fizzy beamed.

"But we put a lot of that weird old stuff you like, and some new stuff we think you'd like, and then some things that we knew you'd hate, because it's funnier that way."

Louis rolled his eyes, smiling at the both of them, "Thank you, girls."

Next was Daisy, and she simply handed him a piece of paper. It was a picture of a little stick figure, sitting in front of what looked like a coffin, but was clearly labeled "Paino" and then that was crossed out and rewritten as "Piano". He was sitting with his hands on the coffin-piano, and there was a little speech bubble coming out of his mouth that said "Yay, teaching!"

Louis chuckled, giving Daisy a kiss on the cheek, "It's lovely, bub. I'll hang it on my bedroom wall when I get back home."

"Mine next! Mine next!" Phoebe shouted, and Louis laughed, because she was the only one left.

"Give it here, love." Louis grinned.

He was handed another piece of paper, and this one had some trees drawn on it, because those were Phoebe's specialty. There was also a sun with sunglasses on, and Louis chuckled, remembering back to when he'd been the age to do these things. She'd drawn two little stick figures, and one was labeled "Me" and the other "You". The one that was supposed to be Louis was holding a flower, and the one that was meant to be Phoebe was standing there, smiling up at him, with a speech bubble that said "It's a lovely day!"

Louis had to laugh at that one, because it had absolutely nothing to do with anything going on in his life, and he sort of liked that. He liked that Phoebe lived in her own little bubble where she and Louis went outside and picked flowers on lovely days.

"It's beautiful." He told her, and she beamed at him. "It'll go up right next to your sister's."

"Alright." Jay said, handing out plates of cake. "Eat up quickly and then off to bed."

The girls all groaned, but took to eating their cake anyway. They'd have time to ask him questions about his new home and his teaching tomorrow, and he'd be happy to answer anything they had to ask. He really had missed them. He couldn't help but think how much he'd love for Hugh to be able to meet Daisy and Phoebe. The three would get along quite nicely, he thought.

They all finished their cake in record time, and then Jay was shooing the girls up to bed, telling Lottie and Fizz to make sure that Daisy and Phoebe got into bed alright. Each of his sisters gave him a kiss on the cheek, and he promised to brush their hair in the morning after presents, and they all beamed at him, even Lottie, who he would've thought was too old for that by this point.

Once they were gone, Jay went into the kitchen, coming back with two steaming cups of tea.

"You don't visit enough." She told him.

"I know." Louis sighed. "Piano teaching has got me busier than I ever would have thought. But it pays surprisingly well, and I love it."

Jay smiled at him, sipping at her tea, "Your sisters miss you like crazy."

"I miss them, too. And you." Louis said, drinking a bit of his own tea.

"Have you made any new friends out in Holmes Chapel?"

"Mum, I talk to you often enough. You know who I'm friends with."

"So, still just little children and their parents then? You keep odd company, Lou." She said, fondness in her voice.

"Parents and children are my favorite people."

"You'll never be a parent and have children of your own until you meet a nice boy to settle down with, though, will you?"

"Not true." Louis said. "I could adopt."

Jay gave him a small nod, "True enough. But I know that's not what you want, hm?"

Louis sighed. She was right. She was always right. She knew him far too well for his own good.

"Off to bed with you." Jay said. "If you haven't got any juicy gossip about your new town then I've got no time for you." She smiled. "I've got to give Santa a call and make sure he arrives before the ungodly hour your sisters are going to awake us."

Louis chuckled, finishing off his tea and handing the cup to his mother, "I'll see you in the morning." Louis smiled.

"See you, dear." Jay said, kissing him on the cheek. "Good to have you home for a bit."

"Good to be home."

Louis grabbed his duffel bag and walked up the stairs to his old bedroom. It had only been a little over two years since he'd lived here, but it was downright strange. The person who had lived in this room was an entirely different person from who he was now, and yet he was exactly the same.

He tossed his duffel down on the floor and threw on some pajamas, knowing that his sisters would not stand for him coming down to open presents in yesterday's clothes. He then laid down on his bed and promptly fell asleep, exhausted and glad to be home.

000

Louis was awoken by a pair of feet on either side of his head, jumping up and down and singing loudly that it was Christmas. At first he was disoriented, nearly having forgotten that he was back home. But then he realized, and he grabbed his two sisters by the ankles, causing them to topple down onto his chest.

"Oof!" He said as the wind was knocked out of him. "Mum and the other girls up yet?"

Phoebe shook her head.

"Wanted to wake you up first." Daisy told him.

Louis smiled widely at them, "Go get the others up and I'll meet you downstairs in a few."

They nodded and skipped away quickly.

Louis got out of bed, cracking his back a few times, and then ambled out of his room and down the stairs. He was the first one down, soon followed by Phoebe, and then his mother, Fizzy and Daisy after her, and then finally Lottie.

They gathered 'round the presents on the floor, and it was mostly just a blur of paper after that, although his mother did get him some very nice new sheet music, and that was all he really remembered, though he knew he had loved everything he'd received.

Once presents were open, his mother enlisted the help of Fizz and Lottie in the kitchen, and left him with the task of playing with the twins, which he would gladly do any day of the week.

The girls ripped some of their new Barbies out of the packages and handed one to Louis, and it had really been far too long since he'd gotten to do anything like this. He was nearly certain it had been when Fizz was younger, the twins having not been interested in Barbies before he'd left for Uni way back when.

He felt like an old man, acting as if it had been so long, but it truly felt like eons ago.

"Hey, Patricia." Daisy said to Phoebe's Barbie.

"Oh, hey, Cassadie."

"Who's this girl?" Daisy asked, turning her Barbie to face Louis'.

"I dunno. I never saw her before." Phoebe said. "Hey, girl, who are you?"

Louis nearly laughed. He'd almost forgotten how amusing little kids were when you actually played with them like this.

"I'm, uh. I'm Harriet?"

Well, shit. That sounded an awful lot like Harry, didn't it?

"That's a funny name." Daisy's Barbie said to his. "I like you. Come be our friend. We're gonna climb some mountains today."

Louis made his Barbie nod her head and then they were off. The mountains were actually furniture, and Louis really enjoyed the creative minds of young children. That's why he got along with kids so well. They were creative, and he liked to feed off of that.

They played for a while, and then Fizz and Lottie came out to the living room, apparently having completed their kitchenly duties for the time being.

"How many Barbies have you got?" Lottie asked.

Louis smiled, because she had abandoned dolls years ago, and it was obvious to him that once he'd left, she'd taken over as the oldest sibling, playing with the younger ones, and Fizz had taken over helping his mum more, and he was really proud of the both of them.

"Just four." Daisy sighed.

"You can take a break, Lou." Fizzy said. "Lottie and I will play."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." Lottie nodded.

"Alright." Louis said, getting up off the floor and sitting on the sofa. "If either of you get sick of this, though, just let me know and I'll be glad to jump back in."

They nodded, and Louis was content. It wasn't that he didn't like playing with his little sisters. He'd missed it. But what he wanted out of all of this was to see how his sisters got on without him. As much as he loved his new home and his new life, he sometimes worried how the girls were getting on back home without him. He'd always been a protector of sorts, even for his mum, and so he figured it was natural to worry.

As he watched them together, however, he realized that he had no reason to worry about them, because they all got on just fine. And sure, a few of the times his mum had had a spare moment she'd called and complained about some sort of fight the girls were having, but when it all boiled down to it, he knew that they loved each other and any fights could be resolved with the right amount of hugs and apologies.

As he sat there watching his sisters, there was a nagging in the back of his head, telling him to text Harry. Friends texted their friends on Christmas, right? So it'd make complete sense, really.

Yeah. Yeah, it'd be fine. It'd be polite, even. He was going to do it.

000

Harry woke up to the sun blaring through his open curtains. He could've sworn he closed them before he went to bed the night before. He didn't care if it was Christmas or not, he wanted to sleep in today.

As he woke up, however, he remembered the events of the day before, and a smile crept onto his face. He and Louis were friends again. Or finally. Had Louis even considered them friends before?

It didn't really matter either way, he supposed, because they were friends now, and he wasn't going to let anything fuck that up.

His phone went off on his bedside table, and he reached over to grab it, seeing a text from Louis.

To Harry: I was playing Barbies with my little sisters, and mine was named Harriet. It reminded me of you a bit. Oh, and Happy Christmas!

Harry smiled to himself, reading the message over a few times before replying.

To Louis: The Barbie reminded you of me, or the name? If it was the Barbie then I think I should be offended. Or maybe the Barbie should. I haven't got nearly nice enough boobs. Happy Christmas to you as well. :)

To Harry: The name, obviously. If you had boobs as nice as Barbie's I think we'd have an issue. :p Though, personally, I find Barbie's looks to be a tad too 'perfect', and if I were into girls I wouldn't go for her at all.

To Louis: Did your sisters name it? Ah, lovely man, you are. I think straight girls everywhere are weeping for their loss.

To Harry: ...No.

Harry bit his lip, rather sure he knew what Louis was saying no to, but just wanting to make sure.

To Louis: No what?

To Harry: No, they didn't name the Barbie. I did.

Harry absolutely beamed at that.

To Louis: Thinking about me while spending time with your sisters, eh?

Shit. Was that taking things too far again? He didn't want Louis to retreat.

To Harry: You're my new friend. Obviously I'm going to think about you sometimes.

To Louis: Fair enough.

To Harry: I haven't got that many friends, you know.

To Louis: Yeah, I think you mentioned something of the sort once. But you've got me now. :) I've gotta go for a bit, though. Just woke up before you texted me, and I'm rather certain mum's waiting with pancakes and presents. We'll talk later, though?

To Harry: Definitely.

Harry got up out of bed, scratching his stomach a bit and then stretching his arms up over his head. He padded out of his room and down the stairs to where his mother was sitting at the kitchen table.

"These pancakes have been ready for hours, you lazy little brat." She said with a large grin on her face. "Happy Christmas, baby boy."

"Happy Christmas, mum."

Harry looked at the clock, and he supposed his mum had a right to call him lazy. It was almost noon, after all. He hadn't even realized it was quite so late.

He sat down at the table and ate pancakes with his mum, and then they went to open presents. They each only got each other a few things, so Christmas wasn't that big of a deal this year. But he didn't mind. He liked it like this. It was calm and nice, and he knew his mum would make a wonderful dinner later and they'd have leftovers for weeks.

After presents his mum shooed him up to his room to do whatever it was that he did when he wasn't doing school, because she wanted him out of her hair while she was cooking. He would have offered to help, but he'd learned by now that when she wanted to cook alone, she wanted to cook alone.

So he made his way up to his room and put on one of his Beatles albums and decided to text Louis again, because why the hell not?

000

When Louis and his family finished eating their small lunch, they all gathered in the living room. Louis grabbed his phone off of the arm of the couch and saw that he had a missed text from Harry from nearly an hour ago.

To Louis: Pancakes have been eaten and presents have been unwrapped. How's your day going?

He smiled at his phone a little but tried to hide it.

To Harry: Just finished lunch, that's why it took me ages to reply. Now I'm lounging around with mum and my sisters, and I think Lottie's about to put on a Christmas special.

To Louis: Lottie?

To Harry: The eldest of my younger sisters.

To Louis: Ah. Got it. Jotting that down in my Facts About Louis journal. :p

Louis chuckled a bit out loud, half because it was funny, and half because he was a bit anxious about the fact that Harry might not really be kidding.

"What's funny?" Lottie asked him.

"Nothing." Louis shook his head. "Just a friend."

"You told me you had no friends." Jay said, sounding scandalized.

"I've got one, alright?"

To Harry: I've just laughed out loud and now they're interrogating me. So thanks for that, buddy. I might disappear for a bit.

"Well, don't just sit there." Jay said. "Tell us about your friend!"

To Louis: Whoops. Didn't realize I'd been that funny. You must be easily amused. Text me once they've finished interrogating you, unless they decide you need to be prosecuted.

To Harry: Shut up.

"Look at the grin on his face!" Fizzy shouted, pointing at him.

"This is totally more than a friend." Lottie said. "Lou's got a boyfriend!"

"I haven't." Louis argued.

"But you have!"

"Louis, c'mon, tell us." Jay urged.

"Mum, when you sound like my little sisters, you know we have a problem." Louis raised an eyebrow at her.

"We do. And the problem is that you're not telling us anything about your new boyfriend." Jay said with a laugh.

"Mum, hush it." Louis rolled his eyes. "I haven't got a boyfriend, alright?"

"Alright." Jay said. "Tell us about your friend, then. I'm assuming this isn't any of your little students or their parents?"

"No." Louis said. "Well, yes actually. He is a student, but he's not a little one. He's seventeen."

"Is he cute?!" Lottie asked, suddenly overly excited.

"He's too old for you and he's gay, so don't get any ideas, little miss."

"So, what you're saying is that he's perfect for you then?" Fizzy stated.

"I'm not saying that at all." Louis said, and he was beginning to feel dizzy. He didn't want to be asked all of these questions about Harry or be made to think about the fact that maybe they could be more than just friends, because they really couldn't.

"Don't pester him, girls." Jay scolded. "Tell us about your friend, love." She looked pointedly at Lottie and Fizz on the word 'friend', trying to make it obvious to them that they weren't to ask him any more questions about whether he and his friend were dating.

"Well, his name's Harry. I've been teaching him for a few months now, and he's doing quite well. He can play a few Beatles tunes and the like. He actually has a signed Beatles album, you wouldn't believe!"

Louis felt himself blushing a bit at how excited he'd gotten, and he was certain that no one had missed it, but he wasn't going to let that phase him.

"Enough about that." Lottie groaned. "Tell us what he looks like."

"Um." Louis stopped and at least pretended like he needed to think. Pretended that Harry's face wasn't engrained in his brain. "He's rather tall. He's got rather long, curly, brown hair. Green eyes. Dimples. A mouth, a nose. The usual face." He shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant.

Lottie and Fizz gave each other a knowing look, and then shared a small glance with their mother, and Louis wanted to slam his head into the table.

Daisy and Phoebe had begun furiously coloring with their new crayons, and Louis decided to let his eyes drift to them. He watched as they stuck their little tongues out in concentration and scribbled away furiously.

"Harry sounds lovely, dear." Jay said. "I'm glad you've found a friend who's your age."

"Me too." Louis smiled a genuine smile then.

Phoebe popped up from the ground, thrusting a piece of paper into Louis' hand. There were two stick figures on it, and Louis noticed that one of them was far taller than the other and had a mop of curly hair. The taller one was labeled "hairy" and Louis chuckled a bit at that. He saw that the little stick figure of himself was handing a little flower to Harry's stick figure, and he had to fight to hold back a blush. Either Lottie and Fizz had taught her the art of taunting, or she had also realized how infatuated Louis was with his eldest student.

Daisy hopped up into his lap then and handed him another drawing. It was two stick figures standing by a piano and one of them was so tall his head barely fit on the page, while his hair was long enough that it almost reached his shoulders, and Louis outright laughed, because Harry would look absolutely hilarious with hair so long. Then he noticed the speech bubble above his own head which read "You're cute."

He smacked himself in the face and then set his sister down on the ground next to her twin.

"Thanks, girls. Wonderful artwork, as usual."

Lottie and Fizz both leaned over, looking at the pictures and giggling to themselves, and Louis honestly wanted to bash his head in.

"Be nice, girls. I'm sure Harry and Louis are just friends. He'd have called me squealing if they weren't."

"I would not!" Louis argued.

"Definitely would." Jay said, smiling.

Louis simply shook his head, and Lottie grabbed up her favorite Christmas special and popped it into the DVD player.

Louis took pictures of each of his sister's drawings on his phone, figuring Harry would appreciate them. Though he managed to avoid getting his speech bubble into the shot, because he didn't need Harry thinking that he'd told his entire family he was cute.

To Harry: My youngest sisters decided to draw us together after that interrogation.

To Louis: I see you're giving a flower to Hairy in the first one. :p Why is that?

To Harry: Don't ask me.

To Louis: You didn't confess your undying love for me to them, did you? Because it's Christmas and I don't have time for that.

To Harry: Ha. Ha. Ha. No. My family likes to joke a bit, and the older girls were teasing me about befriending a gay guy, and then Phoebe and Daisy decided to add to my humiliation.

To Louis: I think I should be offended by that really tall version of me in the second drawing, but I think it really captures my essence, you know?

Louis chuckled at his phone again, and his mum sent him a knowing grin.

To Harry: Dammit, Harry. I laughed at my phone again and mum's giving me a look. I've gotta go. Lottie's got us watching some overly sappy Christmas special. We'll talk soon.

To Louis: Talk to you later, Lou.

000

Harry and his mum had thoroughly gorged themselves at dinner, and then they'd sat around drinking tea and watching It's A Wonderful Life, and Harry may or may not have sobbed into a pillow.

He was still feeling rather stuffed, and his mum decided to head to bed. He sat on the couch alone for a while, just letting his mind wander as he tried to let his food digest some before bed.

He closed his eyes, and his mind began to wander to Louis. Of course it would. But now when his mind wandered to Louis he was happy. He was really happy, because he and Louis were friends now, and they started conversation over things other than questions about piano, and Louis' sister had drawn a picture of Louis giving him a flower, and that had to mean something.

He thought about Louis' delicate hands, and the way he'd smelled when he hugged him the evening before, and it wasn't long before Harry was starting to get hard in his trousers.

"Fuck." He muttered.

He'd been trying not to do that. Hadn't really done it since the first few weeks into his lessons. Whenever he wanked recently it had been to thoughts of some random faceless person, and he'd blocked out all voices, because if there had been any, he knew they would end up being Louis'.

But he and Louis were friends now. And...People sometimes wanked to thoughts of their friends, right? That must be a thing. Like...Guys probably wanked to thoughts of their hot female friends, and he wouldn't doubt if his female friends wanked to thoughts of him, and that would be fine with him. He wouldn't mind in the slightest. So it would be okay to wank to thoughts of Louis just this once, wouldn't it?

He decided that it would and made his way up to his room.

He locked the door and removed all his clothes, lying down on the bed. He then closed his eyes and thought of Louis. He tried to imagine what Louis might look like naked, although he was rather certain that he wasn't going to come up with anything nearly as beautiful as the real thing.

He imagined Louis kissing him while he ran his slender fingers slowly down Harry's chest. He imagined him tugging on his hair and whispering foul words in his ear.

He wrapped a hand around his half hard length and began pumping it slowly, keeping his eyes closed and mustering up more dirty images of Louis. He brought himself to full hardness quickly and then brought his palm up to his mouth, licking over it to get it wet, making it easier for him to stroke his hard cock.

He wrapped his hand around himself again and began to pump quickly, imagining that it was Louis' hand wrapped around him. He tried to imagine what Louis' slender fingers would feel like. Certainly different than his. Probably gentler, and maybe a little faster. He imagined Louis kissing all along his neck as he continued to pump his cock, and his hips bucked a little, causing his mattress to make an obnoxious creaking sound, and he prayed that his mother was asleep by now.

He imagined Louis holding him down with one hand, and surprisingly that was enough to keep him mostly still. He bit his lip to hold back all of the sounds that were trying to slip from his mouth as he ran his thumb over the head of his cock, dipping it into the slit and collecting the precome there.

He thought back to the day before, when Louis had told him he was 'so fucking jealous' of his signed Beatles album, and he managed to extract the word 'fuck' from that. Louis' voice sounded lovely as the word bounced around in his mind.

He imagined Louis looking at him intently with those bright blue eyes as he jerked him off, and he had to bite down on his lip even harder to hold back a desperate whimper. He ran his thumb around the head of his dick, teasing it just a bit before wrapping his hand around it tightly and pumping even faster than before.

He imagined Louis whispering in his ear, telling him to come for him. Telling him to come all over his hand. He could swear he nearly felt Louis' breath on his neck, and at that, he came with a shudder, and a small squeak as he held back a loud moan.

He road out his orgasm, and then let his breathing calm down a bit before opening his eyes and reaching over to grab a few tissues, which he used to clean himself off. He then slipped under the covers and rested his head on his pillow, which felt exceedingly comfortable tonight.

He was happy and sated and he fell asleep with a wide grin on his face.

000

The rest of the day had gone by quite nicely for Louis, and he'd managed to get through dinner with only a few comments about Harry from his family.

They were all stuffed with various foods, though Louis will admit to eating the most. He'd missed his mum's cooking even more than he'd realized, and he was so glad to have it back in his life, if only for a little while.

Everyone was tired now, and so they all had made their way up to their rooms.

Louis was lying on his bed, looking at the various drawings the twins had given him over the past two days. He paid special attention to the ones with him and Harry, and he really couldn't deny how much he loved them. They gave him a warm feeling in his chest, and the fact that Harry had seemed to enjoy them made him happy as well.

He set the drawings down on the floor next to his bed and cuddled up under his covers, shutting the lights off and falling into a peaceful sleep, a gentle smile on his face.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so terribly sorry it took me so long to update. I feel awful about it. But if any of you follow me on tumblr and read my sad little personal posts you'll know that I've been having some serious mental health issues, and that was preventing me from writing properly. I'm going to try my hardest never to take this long to update ever again. <3

Louis had spent three more days with his family, and then he'd had to come back to get back to teaching. He couldn't afford to take too many days off, with the way his income worked. It wasn't as if he had a job with a set paycheck.

He'd kissed his mother and sisters goodbye on the cheek, after a few days of spending some much needed quality time with them, and even though the older of the four girls had kept pestering him about his feelings for Harry, he knew he'd miss all of them greatly. Maybe he'd make more of an effort to call them all on the phone. He never did because he knew they were busy, but if he insisted on talking to them, they could make time.

When he'd gotten home he had unpacked and hung up the drawings that Phoebe and Daisy had made for him over the past few days. More had been added to the collection, and there were enough to cover a good bit of the wall by his bed, which he liked, because it reminded him of home and family and it was nice to have. His room had been a bit boring without this new addition.

He spent his free time listening to his A Hard Day's Night album that Harry had given him, texting Harry occasionally, because they were friends, so he could do that now and it wouldn't be weird. But he made a conscious effort not to text him too much, because he didn't want to seem clingy, and he didn't want to make this friendship more important than it needed to be. He needed to keep a level head.

It was Wednesday now, and he was on his way to Harry's house. He felt like maybe he should be nervous, or feel somehow different than he usually did before Harry's lesson, considering that they were friends now, but he didn't. It just felt like any old Wednesday. He supposed that was good.

He pulled up outside Harry's house and rang the doorbell, and in a split second, Harry was standing before him, the door having been opened in a flash.

"Hey, Lou." He grinned, and his dimples stood out in his cheeks, and Louis tried to stop his heart from beating like a fast paced beat on a bongo drum.

"Hey." He said, coming into the house and going straight over to sit in his usual place on the piano bench.

It wasn't as if they could have small talk about how their holiday had gone, because they'd spoken to each other through most of it. They knew most of what had happened to each other in the week since their last lesson, and that was slightly strange, because Louis was used to there at least being something he didn't know. Up until this past week, he and Harry had never spoken every single day.

"Let's get started, shall we?" Louis asked, as Harry sat down next to him on the bench.

Harry nodded, playing through a few of the simple warm ups he had to limber his fingers up, and Louis tried not to stare at his hands as he played. His fingers were so long and thin, sort of elegant, but also extremely masculine at the same time.

Fuck, he was not doing a good job of not staring at all, and his mind was attempting to venture into very bad, very inappropriate territory.

Lucky for him, Harry soon finished his warm ups and was ready to play whatever bit of the song he'd managed to learn by this point. Louis could close his eyes then, and it wouldn't be strange. He felt like it might seem odd if it looked like he was intently listening to Harry's warm ups. But if he closed his eyes while Harry played his song, Harry would never know that it wasn't out of focus, and was definitely because if he looked at Harry's hands for much longer he might actually get a fucking erection in the middle of their lesson.

And that was so ridiculous, because hands shouldn't be something that got someone so aroused. But just looking at them...They were actually perfect. They were perfect hands and Louis wanted them all over his body.

No. Stop. He needed to stop thinking like that right now.

"Let's see how you're doing with Hey Jude, yeah?" Louis suggested, balling his hands into fists at the fact that his voice had come out as an indignant little squeak in the beginning.

"You alright there, Lou?"

"Fine. Just play, Harry."

"Jeez. All work today, are you? I had thought that since we were friends now you'd go easy on me." Harry said, but there was a joking glint in his eye.

"Nope." He shook his head. "You're lucky I'm not going harder on you."

God, no. That sounded like some sort of innuendo, didn't it? Harry wasn't phased by it, so maybe it didn't. Maybe Louis just had sex on the brain. It was all Harry's stupid fault, with his stupid dimples and his stupid bright green eyes and his stupid hair and his stupid stupid hands that Louis wanted trailing smoothly over his flesh.

Fuck.

Harry began to play, and Louis closed his eyes, blocking out all potential images of Harry by imagining each note Harry played flying across his vision. It was nice. Sort of like counting sheep, except instead of making him sleepy, it made him excited. It made him want to run around and skip and jump and twirl. Because music always made him feel that way, no matter how slow the song. Music just revved him up and got his blood running through his veins in a better and more exciting manner. And this was why he hadn't been able to stay at Uni. This was why he'd had to leave, and come here, and start teaching.

He hadn't expected Harry to have mastered the whole song by now, what with holidays and the like, but as he listened closely, Harry played through the whole song, from beginning to end. He didn't slip up and he didn't lose tempo. He played the entire song perfectly, and it was beautiful, and for a moment, Louis wanted to ask him to play it again so that he could sing along with it.

He slowly opened his eyes, "That was absolutely brilliant, Harry."

"Really?"

"What do you mean really, you didn't even make one mistake." Louis said, smiling widely at him. "I hadn't expected you to have the whole song down yet. I haven't brought any more sheet music with me."

"That's alright." Harry shrugged.

"Play it again?"

Harry nodded, placing his hands back in their proper positions on the keys, and Louis closed his eyes, listening closely as the song rang out around the room.

By the time Harry was done playing, Louis had somehow gotten much closer to him than he had been when he'd started, their thighs were pressed together, and their shoulders were touching gently, and Louis jumped back a bit when he opened his eyes and saw Harry's curly locks right there in his peripheral vision.

"I thought you were going to end up asleep on my shoulder there for a minute." Harry chuckled.

"Don't be ridiculous, Harry. I was just enthralled by the music. You play that song quite well."

"It's a favorite of mine."

"Mine, too. A bit of a masterpiece, really."

Harry nodded, "Since you didn't bring me anything else to learn, what are we to do now, you horrible teacher?"

"Oh, shove off."

"See? Worst teacher ever. You shouldn't treat your students like that, Mr. Tomlinson."

"Call me Mr. Tomlinson one more time and I'll-" Louis stopped talking suddenly, realizing just how close he'd gotten to Harry's face, and scooting away on the bench a bit.

"Or you'll what?" Harry asked, scooting closer again.

This felt an awful lot like sexual tension. But it couldn't be. Because having sexual tension with Harry wasn't something that Louis was allowing himself to do.

"I'll tie you to the bench and make you do your warm ups for the next week."

Louis thought he heard Harry murmur something that sounded an awful lot like 'kinky', but he was pretty sure he was imagining that.

"My mum would just untie me, though."

"Either way. Don't call me Mr. Tomlinson. People my age shouldn't call me Mr."

"Fine, Louis, fine. Stop being so squirmy." Harry said, nudging him with his shoulder. "My time isn't up for twenty more minutes. Want a snack?"

"Oh, I shouldn't. Charlotte's insisted that I eat New Year's Eve dinner at hers, and I wouldn't want to be full."

"Charlotte is Hugh's mum?"

"Yeah."

"That'll be lovely then." Harry smiled widely.

"Yeah. Hugh's been wanting to have me over for dinner for ages now."

"He loves you a lot. It's a tad crazy."

"I just get on well with kids."

"Yeah, but none of your other students treat you like a brother or invite you over for dinner."

"No. Probably just because we have more of a professional student teacher relationship, though."

"So Hugh and I are the exceptions there?"

"Yes, I suppose you are."

"Does this mean Hugh and I are tied for favorite student?"

"Do you want to be tied for favorite student?"

"No, I want to be number one." Harry grinned.

"Too bad. You'll have to settle for tied."

Harry groaned over dramatically, flopping face first into the piano keys, causing the piano to emit an awful sound.

"And Hugh's back in first." Louis laughed.

"Hey, no fair!"

"Anyone who makes that horrible of a sound come out of such a lovely piano cannot be my favorite student, Harry."

"Whatever." Harry grumbled.

"Oh, don't be grumpy, Harold. It takes a lot to be my favorite student."

"I baked you cupcakes and gave you a Beatles album!"

"But you aren't a cute little six year old who barely comes up past my knee, are you?"

"I could be." Harry said.

"...No."

"No?"

"No."

"And why not?" Harry asked.

"Well, for one, it's impossible. And two, I'd feel extremely creepy."

"Creepy why?"

"Just because, Harry." Louis said, standing up and grabbing his bag up off the floor. "I've got to get going, but I'll talk to you soon, I'm sure.

"Yeah, yeah. See you next week, Lou." Harry said, following Louis to the door and waving to him as he drove away.

Louis made his way over to Hugh's house and hopped out of his car, practically skipping up the walkway to the front door and ringing the bell once.

He heard happy little feet skittering toward the door, and then it was being yanked open.

"Mr. Tomlinson!" Hugh shouted, wrapping his arms around Louis' knees.

Louis shuffled into the house with Hugh still wrapped around him, and then leaned down to hug him properly, "Hugh, buddy, I've missed you."

"I missed you, too!" Hugh squeaked.

Charlotte popped her head in from the kitchen, "I'm working on dinner so it'll be ready when Craig gets home, so we can eat right away and you can get going. I'm sure you have some New Year's Eve plans."

He didn't, but he didn't need to tell Charlotte that.

"Thank you, Charlotte. I'll be fine on my own with Hugh out here." Louis smiled back at her, and she disappeared back into the kitchen. "How was your Christmas, buddy?"

"It was so fun! I got toys and clothes and more toys and crayons and even a robot!" Hugh said excitedly. "Dad helped me build him, but I really did most'a the work, Mr. Tomlinson, I swear."

"Oh, I believe you." Louis nodded reassuringly. "Let's get your lesson started, shall we?"

Hugh nodded happily and made his way over to the piano. Louis sat down next to him and listened as he played his warm ups and his scales, and then he helped him out with the song he was learning, and Hugh was giggling and playing, and before Louis knew it, the lesson was over.

"Craig should be back in about thirty minutes and I'm nearly done with dinner. Could you keep Hugh occupied until then, Louis?"

"Of course, Charlotte." Louis assured her. "I tell you what, Hugh. Why don't you go get your favorite new toy, and we'll play with that until your dad gets home and we can have supper, alright?"

Hugh nodded excitedly and then skipped off to his room. While he was gone, Louis decided to quickly check his phone. He had a missed text from Harry.

To Louis: Oh, just thought to ask you to tell Hugh I said hi.

To Harry: You're lucky I'm staying for dinner, or I would've missed this.

To Louis: Did you tell him then?

To Harry: He's up in his room grabbing a toy for us to play with. I'll tell him hi from you when he gets back.

To Louis: Brilliant. :)

Just as he opened the most recent message from Harry, Hugh came stomping back down the steps excitedly, a bucket of blocks in his hand.

"These aren't my favorite, but I wanna play with 'em."

"Sounds good to me." Louis smiled, setting his phone to the side. "Harry says hi, by the way."

"Mr. Harry says hi?!"

"Mhhm." Louis nodded.

"Can I say hi back? Where is he?"

"He's at home. He texted me to ask me to say hi to you."

"Can we call 'im?"

"Oh, I don't think so, Hugh. I don't know if he-"

"Please?"

"Fine." Louis sighed, scrolling to Harry's name in his contacts and pressing send, putting the phone on speaker.

"Hello?" Harry answered, sounding mildly confused.

"Mr. Harry?"

"Hugh?"

"Yeah! It's me! Hi!"

"Hey there." Harry said, and Louis could hear the smile in his voice. "Where's Mr. Tomlinson?"

"I'm right here." Louis said. "I told Hugh you said hi, and he wanted to call you."

Harry chuckled, and Hugh grinned, and Louis' heart fluttered.

"Mr. Harry?"

"Yeah, Hugh?"

"Are you and Mr. Tomlinson in love yet?"

Louis covered his mouth, holding back an odd choking sound, and he heard Harry sigh a bit on the other line.

"No, Hugh. Mr. Tomlinson and I are just very good friends."

"But you like him."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I called you, but you wanted to know where he was."

"Because you called me from his phone, silly." Harry said.

"Well, Mr. Tomlinson likes you."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he held his breath when I asked if you guys were in love, and that means he loves you but he didn't know if you loved him, I think. I seen stuff like this in films, I know."

Harry laughed again, "Films aren't always right, Hugh. Lou's just my good friend."

"'Kay, but if you fall in love you gotta invite me to the wedding."

"Alright, deal."

There was silence from all three of them, and then Harry spoke again.

"I've gotta go. Mum's calling me down for dinner. Have a good time, you two, and I'll see you next week, Lou."

"Bye, Mr. Harry!"

"Bye, Harry."

"Bye."

Louis hung up the phone, dumping out the blocks so that he and Hugh could play.

"Mr. Tomlinson, how come you don't tell Harry you love him?"

"Because I don't, buddy."

"I think you do. And I think he loves you back. He sounds sad about you not loving him, so I think you should tell him, 'cuz it'll make him happy."

"Let's just play with the blocks, Hugh."

"But don't you want to make Mr. Harry happy?"

"Of course. He's my friend."

"Then tell him that you love him." Hugh said, climbing into Louis' lap and beginning to build some strange contraption with his blocks. "It's not so hard, really. S'just three words, and I bet he'll like 'em when you say 'em."

Louis simply shook his head, because sometimes he wished he had the innocence of a child still. Things would be so much easier in life if everyone could think with the same simple reasoning that children do.

Twenty minutes later and Craig was coming in the door while Charlotte served up some delicious smelling chicken and mashed potatoes and green beans.

Louis picked Hugh up and carried him out to the kitchen, letting Hugh tell him where he should sit, which was next to Hugh himself, no surprise there.

Louis tried his best to cut his food properly and not eat too fast, because he was a guest in their home. But eventually he noticed that none of them were bothering to be polite and eat as if they were at a dinner party, and so he stopped behaving that way as well.

They'd been eating for a few minutes when Craig finally spoke, "It's nice to see you again, Louis. I think I've only met you once or twice."

"Yeah. You're usually off at work when I'm around."

"Your piano teaching business going pretty well?"

"Enough for me to live off of, yeah." Louis shrugged.

"That's really brilliant. Great how you left Uni and managed to make a living out of something you love. I really look up to you for that."

"Oh, wow. Thank you, sir."

"Craig. Call me Craig."

"Thank you, Craig." Louis smiled.

"If you ever decide you want to start a real business, with an office and a work space and a studio for lessons or anything like that, and you need funding or someone to back you up, you just give me a call, yeah? I've got people who could help you out."

"Absolutely." Louis nodded. "I really appreciate that."

"Anytime, kid."

"Hey, mummy?" Hugh asked.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"If you love someone, you should tell them, right?"

"Yes, it's always nice to be reminded how loved you are, and reminding people that they're loved is nice, too. Why do you ask?"

"Because Mr. Tomlinson won't tell Mr. Harry that he loves him, and I said he should, because it'll make Mr. Harry real happy, I think."

"Hugh, are you bothering them about this again?" Charlotte asked. "Is that what I heard when you were out in the front room earlier?"

Hugh gave a small nod, looking down at the food on his plate and pushing it around with his fork.

"I think it's great that you support Louis if he does love Harry, sweetie, but they've told you they're just friends, and you need to leave them be now."

"But Mr. Harry sounded so sad when-"

"Hugh, listen to your mother." Craig said.

"Okay." Hugh sighed a sad little sigh and looked up at Louis. "Sorry, Mr. Tomlinson. But if you do fall in love with Harry, will you tell me?"

"Yeah, buddy, I'll tell you."

Hugh smiled brightly, kicking his little feet under the table and going back to eating his food.

The rest of the meal went by nicely, all of them chatting about their lives, and Louis confirming his feelings which were that he absolutely adored this family and the way Charlotte and Craig were raising Hugh. They were wonderful parents.

After dinner her wished them all a Happy New Year and headed home to his flat.

000

Harry had spent most of his night after Hugh's phone call thinking about what he said. Maybe he was right and Louis did like him. Maybe they should stop beating around the bush and just tell each other how they felt.

Harry couldn't be the first one to tell, though, because if he did and Louis didn't feel the same way, that would make lessons quite awkward. It would make them unbearable. He'd probably have to quit if he told Louis how he felt and the feelings weren't reciprocated.

After he'd gone down and eaten dinner with his mum, he'd gone back up to his room and tried to focus on a bit of the schoolwork he'd been given to do over the holiday break, but he couldn't focus. He was too busy thinking about Louis and his feelings for Louis, and Louis' feelings for him.

Kids often picked up on stuff that other people didn't, so wasn't there a large chance that Hugh was right?

There was some sort of tension between him and Louis, but whether it was feelings on Louis' part or not...Well, Harry wouldn't know unless Louis told him.

His mum had called him down about an hour ago with snacks and biscuits and punch all set out, and they were sitting there playing cards, and it was helping to keep his mind off Louis mostly, and it was going to be the New Year in exactly five minutes.

He and his mum finished their current game of go fish, and then turned their attention to counting down the seconds, starting at thirty.

They were both standing up, and his mum was getting even more excited than he was, and Harry was pretty sure she must have spiked her own punch.

And just as the clock struck midnight, and it was officially the New Year, Harry's phone vibrated in his pocket.

His mum hugged him, and he hugged her back, before pulling his phone out and reading the message from Louis.

To Harry: Harry New Year, Happy!!! :)

Harry chuckled, typing out his reply.

To Louis: Drunk, are we?

000

Louis frowned at the message from Harry in confusion before going back and reading the first text he'd sent him, which just so happened to read "Harry New Year, Happy" instead of "Happy New Year, Harry"

To Harry: fuck

He was, in fact, rather inebriated. He wasn't really one for drinking, and he certainly wasn't one for drinking alone. But somehow, on his way home from Hugh's, he'd ended up stopping by a local little wine store and buying himself a bottle, and he'd had over half of it now, and he never did hold alcohol well.

To Louis: I'll take that as a yes?

To Harry: little bit

To Louis: Damn. You should have invited me. I've spent all evening alone in my room, or else hanging out with my mum.

To Harry: as if i'd let you drink, harold.

To Louis: Hey, we're friends now. It's allowed.

To Harry: not because yOu're my student dummy. because you're underage.

To Louis: Goodie two shoes, are you? Just my luck.

To Harry: you dont need alcohol to have fun. we could have fun without alcohol.

Louis pressed send and immediately regretted it, because that had been meant to be a thought, and not an actual message, because he was most definitely thinking about sex.

To Louis: Could we?

To Harry: yeah lik eplaying football or swimming or eating junk food that's fun

To Louis: Mhhm. Okay.

To Harry: hey you never told me hapyy new year

To Louis: You need to get some sleep, Louis. Although I am impressed with your typing skills, actually. You're going to be embarrassed in the morning Mr. "I'm too cool to even be friends with my students until they make me stuff and give me presents". Happy New Year, Lou.

To Harry: hey thats not why we're friends we're friends because you're fun and i like talking to you but okaY i'll go to sleep

To Louis: Goodnight, Louis.

To Harry: goodnight harry xoxo

Louis tossed his phone to the side, and closed his eyes. He was sprawled out lazily on his couch, which was where he'd happened to land when he got tipsy enough to feel dizzy and decided he ought to sit down.

As soon as he closed his eyes, his mind was filled with images of Harry's hands from their lesson that afternoon, and he was too drunk to make them stop like he usually did. And so he let his mind linger there, and then things began to escalate.

He imagined Harry over top of him, running his hands down his naked torso and then bringing them around to squeeze his clothed ass. Harry's hands were so big they could probably hold his entire bum with no problem.

He imagined flipping them over so he was on top, and the both of them stripping down so they were completely naked. And then Harry would slowly run his hands over Louis' length and...

Fuck.

Fuck, he was way too hard. He hadn't even been thinking about this for that long. Christ.

He blamed the alcohol.

He'd let himself go this far, so there was no use in stopping now, was there? Sure, he had a rule against this sort of thing, but it wasn't as if he was actually going to fuck Harry. He was just going to imagine it. And when he woke up tomorrow he could tell himself it was all because of the alcohol, because if he was sober he never would have let things go this far.

He slipped his hand into his sweats and pants, wrapping his fingers around his quickly hardening length and focusing on the images his mind had conjured up.

He imagined Harry sweating and panting beneath him as he thrust in and out of him feverishly. He imagined Harry grabbing his ass and telling him how lovely it was while he kissed every part of him that he could reach.

He ran his hand quickly up and down his cock, collecting the precome from the tip with his thumb and spreading it down his length. He brought his palm up to his mouth and licked it a few times, pretending that it was Harry's tongue, and then brought his hand back down, wrapping it around his length once more and speeding up his pace. He was nearly certain that if he opened his eyes, his hand would be nothing but a blur on his cock.

He imagined Harry's plump lips around his dick, and the way Harry's dimples might stick out when he hollowed out his cheeks to suck harder and harder. He imagined what Harry's face might look like when he came, and the sounds he might make.

He ran his thumb around the head of his cock, dipping it into the slit and then pumping a few more times.

He imagined Harry nibbling on his ear, telling him how pretty he was when he was about to come, and as he did so, he flicked his thumb over the head of his cock and tweaked his left nipple through his shirt, and that was all it took to make him come so hard he could see stars.

He should probably feel embarrassed about how quickly he'd finished, but he didn't. He just felt happy and sated and tired, and a little less drunk than he had been before he'd started. But he was far from sober, so he could still use his drunkenness as an excuse, okay? It counted.

He frowned at the sticky mess he'd created all over his clothes and made his way to the bathroom, stripping down and tossing his clothes into his hamper as he went.

He took a hot shower, cleaning himself off, and then got out, making his way back to his room and slipping on a pair of boxers and a t-shirt before snuggling in under the covers and getting the best night's sleep he'd had in months.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally finally finally updating. I'm so so so so sorry it's been so long, guys. Thank you to all of you for being patient.

Louis woke up to a blaring headache and his phone alerting him that he had a new text message. He picked up his phone and smiled a little as he saw it was from Harry.

To Louis: How's that inevitable hangover of yours coming along?

He glanced at the time stamp and saw that it was twelve until one, and he needed to be at Abigail's house by one for her lesson. Dammit. Drinking the night before work had obviously been a bad idea.

To Harry: Fuck.

To Louis: ?

Louis left his phone on the bed, getting up and throwing on a pair of trousers and a shirt, hoping that they matched and that they were clean. When he grabbed his phone to shove it in his pocket, he had another text from Harry waiting for him.

To Louis: That bad, huh?

To Harry: Can't talk, Harry. I've got a lesson to teach at one. Fuck.

To Louis: Calm down. You'll be fine. Text me after, yeah?

Louis smiled a tiny smile at his phone, shoving it into his pocket, fixing his hair as well as he could, grabbing his bag and running out the door.

He made it to Abigail's in record time, arriving at two after one and rushing up to the door, knocking quickly.

Abigail's mother answered the door, smiling, and he apologized profusely for his lateness. She gave him a bit of a knowing grin and told him it was quite alright.

He and Abigail sat down at the bench and he listened as she fumbled her way through the song she'd been learning, and he tried not to throw up. His head was pounding and the sound of her tiny fingers slamming against the keys inharmoniously at times was causing him to feel much worse than he had just moments ago.

He made himself focus, however, and by the time her time was up she had improved immensely.

Her mother offered him some aspirin, which he gladly took, and then he was off to Jake's house for his lesson.

His head was still pounding, but he made it through, and luckily for him, he only had two lessons to teach today.

He headed home and managed to make himself a couple of cheese toasties, collapsing down on the couch and pulling out his phone to text Harry.

000

To Harry: Make it stop.

Harry grinned at the text for a second before replying.

To Louis: Headache?

To Harry: Headache, neck ache, dizzy. My stomach is absolutely refusing to play nice and is currently trying to prevent me from eating my cheese toastie.

To Louis: You didn't drink any water before bed, did you?

To Harry: No?

Harry shook his head slightly. He didn't drink often at all, but even he knew you weren't supposed to go to bed with nothing but alcohol in your stomach.

To Louis: You're supposed to drink a good amount of water before going to sleep. It helps ward off the hangovers. Try it next time.

To Harry: I'm never drinking again, Harry.

Harry chuckled. Louis was such a child.

To Louis: Not even on special occasions when you're older? I'm sure you'll drink again at some point. Just keep that in mind for the future, yeah?

To Harry: Sure, sure.

To Louis: Good.

To Harry: Fix my head. I nearly fainted at Abigail's.

To Louis: I wish I could fix it, Lou. Just eat your sandwich and you'll feel better soon. Drink lots of water.

To Harry: I can't move. I can't get up to go get the water. Help.

To Louis: You're pathetic. What do you expect me to do, come over and get you the water myself?

Harry grinned as he sent the text. He certainly wouldn't mind going over to Louis' place and taking care of him when he was like this, even if he did wind up being a whiny, obnoxious child, which it seemed like he might.

000

Louis read over Harry's text a few times, trying to decide how to reply. Because there was a large part of him that really did want Harry to come over and take care of him, and let him rest his pounding head in his lap, and pet his hair, and get him water, or a blanket if he got cold. But the logical part of him knew that that wouldn't end well. Especially in the state he was in. He'd get needy and clingy and he was ninety nine percent sure that something of a more than friendly nature would happen if Harry came over right now, and he just couldn't allow that, no matter how nice it would be to have the curly haired boy with him right now.

To Harry: No, silly. I'm just whining. Ignore me.

To Louis: I'm not going to ignore you, Lou. Whine away.

Louis rubbed his hands over his face, taking a bite of his cheese toastie and sighing heavily, not sure what to say next.

To Harry: So...Want to break away from The Beatles for our next lesson, or have you grown quite attached to them?

To Louis: I'm up for learning anything you want to teach, Lou. If you've got something that's not The Beatles then I'd love to try it.

To Harry: Good. I've got a few choices. I'll pick the one I think's the easiest and bring it over on Wednesday. :)

To Louis: The easiest? Are you insulting me, Louis? :p

To Harry: Shove off. You're still a beginner. It's not like I'd bring over some extravagant classical piece for you to learn.

To Louis: What if you did and I could play it, though? Then would I be your favorite?

To Harry: I dunno. Hugh's mum did feed me dinner last night.

To Louis: He's cheating! He can't get his mum to help him. Bet if I asked my mum to help I would've won ages ago.

Louis chuckled at his phone, typing up his response.

To Harry: Harry, he's six. Honestly. You baked me a cupcake all on your own.

To Louis: I should've given you a whole tray of cupcakes, shouldn't I? Then I'd be your favorite.

To Harry: Maybe stop focusing on becoming my favorite and start focusing on learning to play and the rest will fall into place, hm?

To Louis: Whatever you say, Louis.

To Harry: I'm right. I'm always right.

To Louis: I wouldn't be so sure about that, but I'll take your word on it for now. :p

To Harry: As much as I'm enjoying talking to you, I think I'm just going to take a nap and hope I feel better after that, hm?

To Louis: Drink some water first!

To Harry: I will. I promise.

To Louis: Good. Have a good nap, Louis. Text me later and let me know how you're feeling, yeah?

To Harry: 'Course.

Louis shut his phone off then, not wanting his nap to be interrupted. He went into the kitchen, grabbing a large glass and filling it with water, chugging it, as well as taking a couple more aspirin. He then flopped down on his bed and quickly fell asleep.

000

A few of Harry's friends had been away on vacation for the holidays, and they were all arriving back in Holmes Chapel today, because school would be starting back up soon.

They'd all texted him, asking him if he wanted to come hang out, and he'd said sure, and that was how he'd ended up running around in the field a few blocks down from his house, trying as hard as he could to kick the football in to the goal, but it was no use. He'd always been useless at football.

He used to get embarrassed that his female friends could play better than he could, but he didn't care anymore. It wasn't like any of his friends made fun of him for being shit at it. They just appreciated that he played with them anyway, even if he did generally cause whatever team he was on to lose.

They'd been there for a few hours now, and despite the cold weather, Harry was sweaty and grass stained, and they all just sort of collapsed in a pile on the ground.

After the body heat from the exertion of playing wore off, though, they were all cold and their teeth were chattering, so they made their way over to their favorite little tea shop, pushing two tables together and sitting down, ordering their drinks.

Harry listened as all of his friends chatted about where they'd been for vacation, listening to Ruby talk about America, and Justin talk about Russia. Natalie had apparently been to seven different countries within the week, and Harry was slightly baffled as to how she'd managed it. Aside from that, the rest of his friends had just been visiting family members in different parts of England, so they didn't have much to talk about aside from what presents they'd gotten at Christmas.

As Harry was listening to his best friend Charlie talking about some fancy model airplane he'd gotten, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He knew who it was without looking, because all of his really good friends were here. So unless it was his mum, it had to be Louis.

To Harry: My head no longer feels like seven dwarfs are mining in it.

Harry bit his lip, holding back a chuckle, not really wanting to explain to his friends who he was talking to. Though he supposed now that he and Louis were friends it wouldn't really be that big of a deal. They might be able to see through his act, though. Especially the girls. They were quite good at figuring out if and when Harry fancied someone.

To Louis: I'm glad.

To Harry: What's up?

To Louis: Out with friends. They just got back from holiday, so we're catching up a bit.

To Harry: Oh, sorry. Did I bother you? I'll leave you alone, yeah?

Harry felt a slight panic in his chest for some reason. Because he didn't want Louis to leave him alone. He wanted to talk to him. He always wanted to talk to him.

To Louis: No, no, it's fine. These gits are just talking about what they got for Christmas. :p

To Harry: Aren't you interested?

To Louis: Of course. But I can talk to them and talk to you as well.

He proved his point to himself just then by slapping Justin in the back of the head for making a crude comment about something one of the girls had gotten from her mum.

"Hey!" Justin gasped, rubbing the back of his head.

"Play nice." Harry said with a laugh.

To Harry: Okay, good. :) Mum's busy running the girls around. Something about Fizzy having some Science project she was supposed to work on that she forgot about, and it's due the first week back. So I haven't really got anyone else to talk to.

To Louis: Fizzy's the second eldest girl?

To Harry: Yep.

To Louis: And then the youngest are Daisy and...?

To Harry: Phoebe.

To Louis: Right. Got it.

"What did you do for New Year's anyhow, Harry?" Ruby asked.

"Just played card games with mum. Had a lazy night in, I suppose."

"Aw, that's no fun." She said.

"I didn't mind it too much, really. You know I love my mum."

"Yeah, but don't you ever want to go out and party or do something crazy?" Justin asked.

Harry shrugged, "Not really."

Justin and Ruby had always been a little different from the rest of his friends. They partied more than the rest, but they were still good, down to earth people, so they fit in Harry's group of friends well. But sometimes they just didn't understand how someone could spend their teen years drinking tea and sitting 'round outside just talking about things, which was what Harry and the rest of his friends loved the most.

To Harry: Do you like The Fray?

To Louis: Yeah, they're alright. Why?

To Harry: Just wondering.

To Louis: Okay..

To Harry: Shh, I'm trying to be sneaky.

Harry chuckled at his phone, and everyone turned to face him, because apparently no one had been saying anything funny at that moment, so he couldn't play it off as if he was laughing at something one of them said.

"Who're you talking to?" Natalie asked.

"No one." Harry shrugged. "Just a friend."

"All of your friends are here, though." Charlie said.

"How d'you know I haven't made twelve other friends while you lot have been away?" Harry joked.

"Fine, fine. Don't tell us." Natalie said, pouting slightly.

"Alright, I won't."

To Louis: Now I know how you felt on Christmas. You made me laugh and now my friends have started an interrogation.

To Harry: Get out of there fast! That can only end in embarrassment.

To Louis: Is that so?

Harry didn't really see what would be so embarrassing for Louis. Harry knew it would be embarrassing for him, because he liked Louis, and they'd all figure it out and then they'd tease him for months.

Maybe Louis liked him, then. Maybe Hugh was right, and that tiny hopeful feeling in Harry's gut was right, and Louis actually liked him.

To Harry: Obviously.

That was no help in figuring anything out.

"Well, I've got to get home. Mum's probably annoyed at me rushing out the second we got home." Charlie said.

"Yeah, it's getting rather late. We should all probably head out." Ruby nodded.

They all got up, hugging each other goodbye and saying they'd see each other at school soon.

Harry wrapped his scarf tightly around his neck, nighttime in early January being a particularly cold time. With the sun gone down and the wind having picked up, and without the warmth created from running around trying to kick a football, Harry was shivering within seconds.

They'd walked here from the field, which he'd walked to from his house, but in this cold his house seemed very far away from the tea shop.

To Louis: Walking home. It's freezing, so I'm going to keep my hands in my pockets. Talk to you in a bit.

He shoved his hands into his pockets, walking briskly home as the Winter air blew in his face, causing his eyes to water a bit. When he finally got home, he ran up to his room, wrapping himself up in a blanket and turning on his computer, planning to just fiddle around on the internet for a while before going to sleep.

He pulled his phone out of his coat pocket and saw that a text from Louis was waiting for him.

To Harry: Alright. Don't catch a cold!

Harry grinned at his phone.

To Louis: No colds here.

To Harry: You wouldn't know that yet though, would you? You don't get symptoms within fifteen minutes.

To Louis: Hush up.

To Harry: Bossy.

Harry grinned at his phone.

To Louis: What do you even do?

To Harry: What?

To Louis: Besides teaching piano. What do you do?

To Harry: Oh.

To Harry: Nothing really? Just...I talk to you, I ring mum and talk to her and sometimes the girls, I sit in my flat and watch films.

To Louis: That's it? You never go out and do anything?

To Harry: Not really, no.

To Louis: That's too bad.

To Louis: We should do something sometime, yeah?

To Harry: Maybe. That might be fun. We'll see.

To Louis: Okay.

To Harry: I'm going to get some sleep. I'm still feeling a little off. Please remind me to never ever drink ever again.

Harry smiled to himself, texting Louis back.

To Louis: G'night, Lou.

To Harry: 'Night, Harry.

Harry set his phone down next to him, logging on to his Twitter and seeing what everyone was up to, although he wasn't really paying attention to the words on the screen as he read them, because he was thinking about the fact that Louis hadn't flat out said no to hanging out with him some time.

And he knew it would just be as friends, but still, that was a step up from only seeing him at lessons.

000

When Wednesday finally rolled around, Louis made his way to Harry's house, freshly printed sheet music in his bag and a smile on his face.

He rang the doorbell, and when Harry answered, Louis felt slightly awkward as he remembered that he'd definitely wanked to thoughts of Harry last week. Texting him hadn't been strange, and Louis had hoped that his mind had just sort of let that go, but the second he laid eyes on Harry's beautiful dimpled smile a sudden wave of guilt washed over him.

But he quickly pushed it aside, coming into the house and going to sit down on the piano bench. Harry sat next to him, and Louis listened as he ran through some of his scales and warm ups, and Louis decided he really ought to give him some more difficult warm ups, because the ones he was doing now would hardly prepare his fingers for the more difficult songs they'd be learning relatively soon.

Louis pulled the sheet music out of his bag, handing it to Harry, who set it up in front of himself.

Louis had decided on How To Save A Life by The Fray, which happened to be a favorite of his, and it was a little more difficult than what Harry had been doing so far, but it was still rather simple and the music was easy to read.

"This song is nice." Harry smiled, looking over the sheet music.

"It's one of my favorites."

"I haven't heard it much really. Used to listen to it on the radio when it was on, but that's it, really."

Louis shook his head slightly, feigning disappointment.

"Read it and try to get a feel for it, yeah? And then just start playing whenever you're ready."

"Okay." Harry nodded. "Yeah, sure."

Louis watched as Harry read over the song a few times. Since he wasn't as familiar with this one as he had been with the rest of the songs that he'd learned, Louis was expecting him to find it a bit more difficult.

After a while of simply reading it, his brow furrowed in concentration, Harry began to play. He got two notes in, messed up, muttered to himself, and then turned to Louis.

"D'you want me to play all the notes like usual and then focus on one bit?"

"That's generally how you learn, yeah?" Louis said. "Just stick with that. It's best to have one solid method when you're learning."

He started again, fumbling on the same note he'd messed up before.

"Christ, Lou, I can't do it. I don't know this song well enough to know what it's supposed to sound like, but I know I've got it all wrong."

"You've just got to let the sheet music tell you, Harry. You don't have to know the song to know how it goes. You've just got to understand the music."

"I think I've been cheating. When it comes to properly reading the music, I mean. I just know The Beatles by heart, so when you sit me down with that I can hear it in my head and then I just have to figure out how to make the piano make those sounds, you know?"

Louis nodded, "I understand, Harry. Here, just listen to me play it, and read along with the music as I go, and then all you've got to do is copy the notes. Just focus on the notes this time around. Don't worry about the tempo or anything yet. Just the notes."

Harry nodded, and Louis set his hands in the correct positions on the keys, playing through the song once, and then turning to look at Harry.

"Did that help at all?"

"I think so." Harry nodded.

He began playing through the notes, and Louis listened carefully. He was doing well, but there were a few times where he hit the wrong key, and Louis wasn't quite sure if he even knew he made a mistake.

"How was that?"

"Much better. You're still making a few mistakes, though. I think you're letting your eyes get ahead of your hands. You're skipping some notes here and there."

"Bullocks." Harry muttered.

"Just try it again, Harry. One more time and then I've got to head over to Hugh's."

Harry began to play, and Louis closed his eyes, listening carefully. Harry was doing brilliantly at first, but then he hit two keys at once, and it made an odd sound, and then there was a loud slamming of keys, and Louis' eyes flew open.

"Don't take it out on the piano, Harry."

"I can't get it, Lou. I can't fucking do it. I really am shit at this. I kept trying to tell you, and you said I wasn't."

"You aren't."

"Then why can't I play this?" Harry asked, slight desperation in his voice.

"It's just harder than the others." Louis said, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder. "You're really good, Harry, but you're still learning. You'll get this one eventually. It's just going to take longer than the rest."

"You promise I'm not shit at it?" Harry asked, looking Louis in the eyes.

And wow, when did their faces get so close?

"I promise." Louis said, barely above a whisper.

Their faces were getting closer. Slowly moving towards each other. And Louis didn't know if he was moving in, or if Harry was, or if they both were. What he did know, however, was that if they didn't stop right now, they were going to end up kissing.

Somehow that thought wasn't enough to stop Louis' face from getting closer to Harry's however, and his eyes slipped shut, preparing himself for the kiss.

And just as he could feel Harry's breath on his lips, the sound of the front door opening caused Louis to jump, falling backwards off the piano bench and onto the floor.

"Mum!" Louis heard Harry say breathlessly. "You're home early."

"Yeah. We had a slow day today, so we all got sent home early." Anne said, her voice getting closer, and Louis looked up from the ground to see her standing right in front of him. "Nice to see you, Mr. Tomlinson."

"Call me Louis."

"Of course. Louis. What are you doing on the floor, exactly?"

"Fell."

"You fell on the floor and just decided to stay there?" She asked, extending a hand to him.

"I just fell right before you came in." Louis said, taking her hand and standing up. "Anyhow, I've got to get to my next lesson. It was lovely seeing you, Ms. Cox. I'll see you next week, Harry!" He said as he grabbed his bag, heading for the door.

"Yeah. Bye, Lou." Harry waved.

Louis quickly ran out of the house and to his car, hopping in and driving away as quickly as he could.

He'd actually been about to kiss Harry. He was about to cross every single line he'd set for himself and kiss Harry, and he was so lucky that Anne had walked in when she had, because otherwise who knows what would be happening right now.

When he arrived at Hugh's he completely immersed himself in the lesson, focusing entirely on Hugh, and pushing all thoughts of Harry and their almost kiss from his mind.

When Hugh's lesson was over, he gave him a hug and told him and Charlotte goodbye, and then he headed out to his car.

When he got back to his flat, he was too upset to eat. His stomach was churning and he couldn't think straight.

He couldn't talk to Harry anymore. He just couldn't. He'd known it had been a bad idea to begin with, and all it had done was cause him to grow more attached, and look where that had gotten him. It was just too risky. He couldn't talk to him anymore.

He flopped down on the couch, turning on the telly and trying to pay attention to whatever happened to be on at the time, but his mind was all over the place.

He pulled out his phone, thinking he might call his mum and ask how the girls were doing, just as an active distraction. But when he pulled his phone out of his pocket, he saw he had a missed text from Harry from around the time he'd fled his house.

He hesitated for a moment before opening it.

To Louis: Louis...We need to talk about, um. About what just happened.

000

Harry wasn't expecting an immediate reply from Louis, seeing as he had a lesson to teach, but he had been expecting one by now. He was trying to focus on his homework, he had a surprisingly large amount for the middle of the first week back after the holidays, but he was having trouble focusing.

When his phone finally alerted him that Louis had texted him back, he could swear his heart stopped in his chest. He grabbed his phone with slightly jittery hands and opened the message.

To Harry: I don't think we should talk at all anymore, Harry. Not about things that don't involve piano.

Harry frowned at his phone.

To Louis: You've got to be joking.

To Harry: I'm not.

To Louis: Louis, you can't just...We nearly kissed and we need to talk about it. You can't just expect me to forget about it because I won't.

To Harry: Do you want a different piano teacher then? I'm sure your mum could find you one.

To Louis: No. No, that's not what I want at all. What I want is to talk to you about what happened and figure out what exactly is going on here, because I think we both deserve to know.

To Harry: There's nothing to know, Harry. We almost did something silly today, but we both know better, yeah? So let's just go back to the way things were when I first started teaching you and everything will be fine, hm?

Harry laughed bitterly to himself, because the way things were when they'd first started lessons wouldn't be much better, if Louis had known exactly how Harry felt about him back then, or that he'd thought of him when he got himself off the night they met.

To Louis: Fine. Yeah. Whatever, Louis.

To Harry: Practice your song. I'm sure you can figure it out without any help from me. I'll see you next week.

To Louis: Yeah, okay.

Harry set his phone down, wiping a few tears from his eyes.

There had been a part of him that was so sure that when they almost kissed it was going to be some sort of breakthrough. That they'd talk through it and admit how they felt, and just move forward from there. But not only had that not happened, but now he'd lost Louis as a friend as well.

He had no clue how he was supposed to fix things this time. He had a feeling a cupcake wouldn't help.

His mum called him down for dinner, and he went into the bathroom, splashing water on his face and plastering on a fake smile.

He sat down across from his mother at the dinner table, and she gave him a questioning look.

"What exactly was going on when I came in earlier?" She asked as she served them each some corn.

"Nothing." Harry shrugged.

"Didn't look like nothing to me."

"Mum, it was honestly nothing. I promise."

Anne nodded, sitting down and picking up her fork, "Alright. But if something is going on you can tell me, you know?"

"Of course, mum."

000

Louis ran a hand over his face, letting out a deep sigh. He knew Harry must be feeling ten times worse than he did at this point, and he felt like absolute shit.

He wasn't being fair to Harry. In fact, he was being a right git. Harry deserved to know how Louis felt. They both deserved to get their feelings out in the open. But Louis knew that once they both told each other the truth, things would end up escalating. There'd be no holding them back, and they'd end up actually kissing next time, and Louis just couldn't do that. He'd promised himself he wouldn't.

So until they both moved on, they'd just have to be miserable.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I've had most of the events from this chapter planned since before I even started writing the fic, so this is the chapter I'm most excited about, and I hope you guys love it.

A week passed, and it was Wednesday again, and nearly time for their next lesson. Harry was sitting on the couch, anxiously crossing and uncrossing his legs in different positions, twiddling his thumbs, and chewing on his lower lip.  
  
The way he saw it, there were three options for when Louis arrived. Either they'd forget the almost-kiss ever happened, Louis would go back to being distant and uncomfortable, or they'd just take a moment to sit down and really talk about what had happened last week. Harry sincerely hoped it would be the latter.  
  
The doorbell rang, and Harry went hesitantly to answer it, pulling the door open slowly, and Louis walked inside quickly, not looking him in the eyes. He sat down in the chair he'd taken to sitting in last time things had gotten uncomfortable, and Harry sighed softly. Distant and awkward it was then.  
  
He walked over and sat down on the piano bench, "Not even a hello then?"  
  
"Sorry." Louis muttered. "Hi, Harry. Get to your warm ups, yeah?"  
  
"Yeah, sure." Harry nodded, and played through all of his warm ups, limbering up his fingers.  
  
"Were you able to figure out that song at all?" Louis asked, sounding almost as if he'd rather be anywhere else but here. His voice was strained, and he was giving off an awful vibe that made Harry's head hurt and his heart ache.  
  
"Just little bits and pieces here and there. S'hard. Mum helped me a bit, though, and I think I've got the entire bridge figured out."  
  
"Go ahead and play it then." Louis said, leaning back in the chair and closing his eyes.  
  
Harry stared at him for a moment, this being the only time he could really look at Louis, when the older lad's eyes were closed. He then turned back to the piano, getting his fingers in place and beginning to play. It sounded right, from the way he knew the song, but he could've been wrong. He didn't know it all that well.  
  
When he finished, Louis opened his eyes, "So much better than last week, Harry. You had a couple of notes that sounded a bit strange, but aside from that you were perfect. Play it a few more times, would you? And really pay attention to if there are any half notes or anything like that, yeah?"  
  
"Yeah, okay." Harry nodded, tilting his head from side to side, cracking his neck a little, and then getting his fingers back in place.  
  
He played through the bridge a few times, and each time sounded better and better, and felt more and more natural for him to play, and by the time he'd played through it six times non-stop, he felt quite confident in that bit.  
  
"Better?" He asked.  
  
"Much. Now try out the chorus, yeah?"  
  
Harry placed his hands on the keys and took a deep breath, not really knowing what he was doing with this bit at all.  
  
"Stop." Louis said.  
  
"What?" Harry asked him, turning around on the bench.  
  
"Your fingers are all wrong. Look at your sheet music and figure out where your hands need to be, Harry."  
  
Harry's brow creased as he turned to look at the sheet music, but he couldn't figure out what he was doing wrong, "Show me?"  
  
"I can't." Louis shook his head. "You know it. You know deep down where your hands need to be to play this properly so just put them there."  
  
"You're being a pretty shit teacher, Louis. I understand you've got issues with whatever there is going on with us, but you need to teach me properly still. Don't let this affect our lessons, please."  
  
"I've got to get to Hugh's, Harry. Ask your mum for help, yeah?"  
  
"It's not like she's a piano expert, Louis. She only knows the simple stuff. She'll be just as useless with this as I am."  
  
"I'm going now. Can't be late getting to Hugh's. Bye, Harry."  
  
And with that, Louis was up and out of the house before Harry could even manage to say goodbye.  
  
It was safe to say that this was at least ten times worse than the last time Louis had gotten like this.  
  
Harry slammed his face down against the keys and flinched at the dreadful sound it made. A few tears made their way out of his eyes, but then he imagined Louis telling him not to ruin such a beautiful piano with his stupid little tears, and he sniffled a little, straightening up and wiping the keys off with his shirt.  
  
He held his head in his hands a bit, and he may have cried a little more, but mostly he was thinking. Thinking of a way to get Louis to stop behaving like this. He'd already determined that cupcakes and an old Beatles album wouldn't be enough. But what he needed to figure out was what would be enough.  
  
Suddenly, an idea hit him, and he ran upstairs to his laptop, searching until he found what he was looking for, and then emailing the link to himself, running downstairs and turning on the computer that was hooked up to the printer. He then opened up the link and printed out a song. A song that he was going to teach himself. A song that he would not only play for Louis, but one that he would sing as well. He'd just have to learn it and find the right time.  
  
This would have to work.  
  
000  
  
Louis felt off for the entirety of the day, even at Hugh's lesson. He knew Hugh could tell he was feeling out of sorts, but surprisingly he didn't mention it. Maybe it was obvious that Louis was just feeling that bad. So bad that he shouldn't be asked what was wrong.  
  
After Hugh's lesson he went home, made himself a sandwich, watched the telly for a while, and then flopped down on his bed, turning in far too early, and not really falling asleep. Just lying there, thinking, and tossing and turning, and groaning because he couldn't get comfortable, and then thinking some more.  
  
Maybe it would have been better to just sit around watching the telly. At least then he would have had something other than silence and the roaring of his own mind to listen to.  
  
000  
  
A few weeks passed, and Harry hadn't really improved at all on How To Save a Life. He could still only play the bridge, and he could tell Louis was getting annoyed with him. Harry just didn't have time to be bothered with that song, though. Not when he had another more important one to learn. When he wasn't at school, doing homework, eating, or sleeping, he was playing the song he'd decided to sing for Louis.  
  
It was a lot harder than he'd really expected. His hands had to move all over the piano, and some bits went quite fast, and there was a lot of using both hands at the same time in very different places, and it was all a big jumble in his mind. But it helped that he knew the entire song by heart, so if he made one tiny mistake he'd notice right away and fix it before he could fuck up even worse.  
  
He was getting pretty good at it by this point. He'd spent every single free moment working on it, and it was paying off. He just needed to tweak a few things here and there, and then he could start working on singing and playing at the same time. He was quite certain that would be more difficult than it looked when professionals did it.  
  
Today was February first, however, which just so happened to be his birthday, and he had given himself the day off. He'd spent the late afternoon with his mum, playing silly games and eating cake, and she'd given him some money, telling him that she hadn't a clue what to buy him anymore, and he'd laughed and given her a hug.  
  
Then he'd spent the evening out with his friends. Unlike most teenagers who first turned eighteen, his plans had not been to go out drinking. In fact, he and his friends had simply gone to the cinema, and then out for pizza and bowling afterwards. He'd had a brilliant time and had managed to keep his mind off of Louis for the entire night.  
  
Now that he was home, however, he couldn't help but feel a tad disappointed that he didn't even have one simple text from the older lad telling him happy birthday. Surely he'd remembered that it was today. Harry was certain he'd told him, during one of their lengthy conversations.  
  
He didn't know why he'd even expected a text in the first place. He and Louis weren't friends anymore.  
  
He shook his head a little, climbing out of bed and going downstairs, playing through the song a few times, although he was feeling rather sleepy. After a while, his mum came downstairs, resting a hand on his shoulder gently.  
  
"Harry, you've got school tomorrow, sweetheart. I don't know why you've been playing so much lately, but you need to sleep."  
  
"Yeah, okay." Harry nodded, getting up from the bench and heading up the steps, his mother right behind him.  
  
He wished her goodnight, and they each made their way into their separate rooms. Harry flopped down on his bed and was asleep within minutes.  
  
000  
  
By the time Wednesday arrived, Harry still hadn't learned any more of the song he was supposed to be learning, but he did have his song for Louis down almost perfectly.  
  
There was a knock at the door, and Harry went to answer it, gesturing for Louis to come inside.  
  
Louis walked to his chair, and Harry to the piano bench.  
  
"My birthday was a few days ago, you know?"  
  
"Was it?" Louis asked, as if he hadn't already known.  
  
"Yep. Eighteen now."  
  
"Did you have a nice birthday?"  
  
"Yeah. Spent some time with mum and went bowling with my friends."  
  
Louis hummed, and Harry took that as the end of the conversation.  
  
He played through his warm ups, as usual, and then the lesson continued as it had the past few times. With Harry playing the bridge of the song a few times through, and then simply sitting there. No matter how many times they did this, it would never be less awkward. Louis refused to speak to him, and Harry didn't know any more to play, and he honestly didn't feel like trying. So they'd just sit there in silence, until Louis stood up, telling Harry he had to get to Hugh's, and that he'd see him next week, and Harry would wave and tell him goodbye.  
  
Today, however, when there were about fifteen minutes left to their lesson, Louis spoke.  
  
"We've got a recital on the last Saturday of this month, Harry. I was hoping you'd have How To Save a Life down by then, but obviously not. So you can either play Hey Jude or Let It Be, it's up to you. It'll be the same time and place as last time, so you should probably dress warm, because I assume it'll be rather chilly outside."  
  
"Yeah, alright." Harry nodded. "I'll be there, for sure."  
  
Louis fell silent again, and so did Harry. The last few minutes of time went by, and then Louis was getting up, telling him he'd see him next week.  
  
Once he was gone, Harry got straight to playing the song he'd been learning. He was going to play this at the recital if it killed him.  
  
000  
  
It was Valentine's Day, and Louis had had two lessons to teach in the early afternoon, but it was the evening now, and he was sitting on the old sofa in his flat, eating a bar of chocolate that he'd bought himself, because he wasn't going to be one of those sad people who bought himself a whole box of those fancy chocolates, but he did want chocolate, and so a chocolate bar would have to do.  
  
He picked up the phone, calling his mum, trying to distract himself from how lonely he was, and how large of a part of him wanted to just call Harry and apologize for being such a twat and ask him to come over for some wine or something.  
  
"H'lo?"  
  
"Hey, mum." Louis said, smiling at the sound of his mother's voice. They hadn't spoken properly in a while.  
  
"Alone on Valentine's Day, Louis? You've got to get out more."  
  
"I get out all the time, mum."  
  
"I mean outside of lessons."  
  
Louis sighed.  
  
"You know I'm right, Louis. I know you love the kids you teach, and you love their parents, but you've got to get out and meet people your own age. You've got to make some friends there."  
  
"You know I'm not good at that." Louis said, shrugging, although his mother couldn't see him.  
  
"Just go sit around at a coffee shop, or spend some time walking about town without a real purpose or anywhere to be. You're a handsome young man, Louis. Someone's bound to talk to you."  
  
"M'fine." Louis insisted.  
  
"Alright." Jay said, letting the subject go, for now, at least. "How's Harry then?"  
  
"We're, um. We're not really speaking anymore."  
  
"Why on earth not?"  
  
"Just a silly fight. Nothing big. But we decided it's best we don't speak outside of lessons."  
  
Jay let out a thoughtful hum on the other end of the line, "Is this because of what your sisters were teasing you about when you were here? Because-"  
  
"No, mum. I've told you all far too many times. Harry and I were just mates, and now we aren't even that anymore, so you can tell the lot of them to stop cooing over me, because I certainly haven't got myself a boyfriend."  
  
"Alright. I was just asking." Jay said. "I've got to go, Louis. I've got to get Daisy and Phoebe to turn off whatever it is they're watching on the telly so we can go and pick up your sisters. Fizzy's at a school event, and my little Lottie's on her very first Valentine's date."  
  
Louis could hear his mother getting emotional on the last sentence, and he realized that this must be an emotional time for her. He'd never really been on a date for Valentine's, so this was the first time she was experiencing it. And on top of that, it meant that Lottie was really growing up. If he was being honest, it was making him rather emotional as well.  
  
"You'd better get going then, mum. I know how difficult it can be to get the little ones away from the telly."  
  
Jay chuckled, and Louis smiled.  
  
"And mum?"  
  
"Yes, sweetie?"  
  
"Tell Lottie I hope her date went well, hm?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
"Alright. Thank you. Bye, mum."  
  
"Bye, Lou."  
  
And with that, Louis hung up, running a hand over his face and sighing a bit.  
  
He spent the rest of the evening slowly eating his chocolate bar, and repeatedly reminding himself that he'd sworn off drinking, and also that it would be a very very bad idea to call Harry.  
  
He mostly just watched the telly all night and ate whatever he could find in his freezer that he could toss into the microwave for a few minutes. He tried not to think about Harry too much, but in actively trying not to think about Harry, he kept causing himself to think of Harry, and so he turned in early. Climbing under the covers and drifting off into a restless sleep.  
  
000  
  
Harry spent Valentine's Day on his own, playing the piano.  
  
He had bought his mum a rose and a box of chocolates on the way home from school, and when she'd gotten home from work he had told her that she should spend the night out, take some time for herself, and that he could make himself dinner tonight. So she was out, going to the cinema, and out to a nice restaurant all by herself, and Harry was home alone, playing the piano.  
  
He'd started trying to incorporate the singing along with the playing, and it was even harder than he had expected. His fingers would fumble, or his voice would falter, or he'd miss a note, or hit the wrong key, and it was all just so confusing. He didn't know how people did it. Playing on its own was hard enough, but then trying to add remembering words and notes and timing along with that? It was nearly impossible.  
  
But he kept trying and trying and trying. For hours and hours he practiced, and he was finally able to sing through the entire chorus while playing and not mess up, and his mum was going to be home soon, so he decided to call it a night. He could practice more tomorrow.  
  
When his mum got home they sat and watched the telly together for a while, and she insisted on sharing her chocolates with him, even though he'd told her repeatedly that she really didn't need to, because he'd bought those for her.  
  
After a while, Harry began to get quite sleepy. All of the playing and singing had worn him out. So he told his mum goodnight, and she told him she hoped he'd had a good Valentine's Day, even if he hadn't had anyone to spend it with, and he told her that he had, and went to bed.  
  
000  
  
It was the night before the recital, and Harry had been playing and singing ever since he'd gotten home from school, only taking a break to eat.  
  
At dinner, his mum had asked him if he'd like her to come to the recital tomorrow, or if he'd rather she run the errands she needed to run, and he'd told her to just go ahead and run errands. He figured he'd invite her along next time, but today was important and he figured it would be best not to sing his song to Louis in front of his mum, because that might make things a little awkward or weird and he didn't want that.  
  
He'd finally managed to sing the entire song whilst playing a couple of hours ago, and he'd just kept going and going ever since, wanting to make sure that he would be absolutely perfect for the recital.  
  
Louis had been getting more and more annoyed at him for not learning the song by The Fray that he was meant to be learning, but Harry was hoping that after Louis saw him perform at the recital he'd understand.  
  
He was also hoping this would go the way he'd planned, and not completely backfire on him. He hoped Louis liked the song, and that he'd appreciate all the effort Harry had taken to learn it, and that he wouldn't just ignore him when the recital was over. He wanted Louis to be proud of him, and he wanted Louis to start speaking to him again.  
  
He played until the wee hours of the morning, playing and singing a bit more quietly after his mother went to bed, so as not to wake her, and finally, when his fingers were numb, he decided he ought to stop. He didn't want to be too tired or have a sore throat the next afternoon. So he drank a bit of warm tea, cracked his knuckles a few times, and headed to bed.  
  
000  
  
Harry was on his way to Louis' now, bundled up in a jacket and scarf. It wasn't all too cold, really, but it was windy, and he didn't want to be shivering whilst trying to play and sing. This was an important day.  
  
He'd practiced a few times in the morning, just to make sure he truly knew what he was doing, and he'd sounded nice, he thought. So he'd given himself the afternoon to rest, and he'd had another cup of tea to sooth his vocal chords, and he'd taken some deep breaths and just tried to relax.  
  
On his way to Louis', his nerves began jumping around inside him, causing his stomach to turn a bit. And by the time he walked through the gate into the back garden of Louis' flat, he was nearly certain he was going to throw up.  
  
He went and sat down in the front, where the children had already begun to gather, and he sort of hoped he'd get to sit next to Hugh. But before Hugh arrived, two little girls had sat in the seats on either side of him, and Harry sighed a little. He didn't really know these girls, but he recognized one as the girl from the last recital who was already so good that she could play some very impressive classical works.  
  
Harry sat there, chewing the inside of his lip and getting more and more nervous as he waited for the recital to begin. He heard Hugh and Charlotte talking to Louis, and turned around a bit, looking at them, and smiling at Hugh, who smiled back. He then turned back around, and looked along the row of children sitting in the front, waiting for their turn to play. Everyone was here now, which meant that it would be time to start at any second.  
  
Harry began picking at a bit of lint on his jacket, trying not to think too much. A few minutes later and Louis was walking up to the front, standing in front of the piano and thanking everyone for coming. Then it was time for the recital to begin.  
  
Harry watched as all of the young children went up and played their songs, and many of them had improved vastly from the last time he'd seen them. Some of them he didn't remember, but he knew they must have been students of Louis' since before the last recital. It was cute, watching all of the kids in their little suits and fancy dresses, with big puffy coats over top.  
  
Eventually, it got around to being Harry's turn, and he took a deep breath, trying to steady himself as he stood up and walked up to the piano.  
  
He sat down, placing his hands on they keys, and cleared his throat, "I'm meant to be playing Hey Jude today, but I've been working on a little something else, so I hope you'll all enjoy it. Um, I'm going to be singing as well, so hopefully there's no rule against that." Harry chuckled a little nervously, and all of the parents and children and Louis stayed silent, apparently waiting for him to start.  
  
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and then opening them, looking down at the keys and playing the first few notes.  
  
And then he began to sing.  
  
 _Sweet disposition_  
 _Never to soon_  
 _Oh, reckless abandon_  
 _Like no one's watching you_  
 _A moment, a love_  
 _A dream, a laugh_  
 _A kiss, a cry_  
 _Our rights, our wrongs_  
 _A moment, a love_  
 _A dream, a laugh_  
 _A kiss, a cry_  
 _Our rights, our wrongs_  
  
He looked up from the piano then, looking at out over all of the smiling and mostly unfamiliar faces in the audience, searching for Louis, and finding him in the middle, between Charlotte, and some woman he'd never seen before. He locked eyes with him, hoping his playing wouldn't falter because of it. He tended to need to look at the keys while playing.  
  
 _So stay there_  
 _'Cause I'll be coming over_  
 _While our blood's still young_  
 _It's so young_  
 _It runs_  
 _We won't stop 'til it's over_  
 _Won't stop to surrender_  
  
He looked back down at the piano again, counting himself as lucky that he hadn't messed up during that bit, but not wanting to risk it. The look on Louis' face when he'd locked eyes with him had seemed like recognition, so if he didn't know the song was meant for him by this point, he never would, and there was no use in keeping on staring at him.  
  
 _Songs of desperation_  
 _I played them for you_  
 _A moment, a love_  
 _A dream, a laugh,_  
 _A kiss, a cry_  
 _Our rights, our wrongs_  
 _A moment, love_  
 _A dream, a laugh_  
 _A kiss, a cry_  
 _Our rights, our wrongs_  
  
He looked out at Louis once more, before quickly turning back and looking down at the keys. He just wasn't quite comfortable or confident enough to look away for long yet.  
  
 _Stay there_  
 _'Cause I'll be coming over_  
 _While our blood's still young_  
 _It's so young_  
 _It runs_  
 _We won't stop 'til it's over_  
 _Won't stop to surrender_  
  
 _Won't stop 'til it's over_  
 _Won't stop 'til it's over_  
 _Won't stop 'til it's over_  
 _Won't stop to surrender_  
  
Harry finished the song, breathing in deeply, and standing up to take his bow just like all the children before him had done, and he listened to the applause, and a couple of little children were giggling happily, and he was hoping it was his song that had made them feel so joyous, because that would be lovely. That would be a nice compliment.  
  
He was pretty confident in how he'd done. He obviously knew he didn't sound anything like The Temper Trap, but that wasn't his goal. His goal was to sing a song for Louis, and he had done just that. He just hoped Louis had liked it.  
  
He walked back to his seat, sitting down and biting nervously on his lip, wishing he could talk to Louis now, but listening as the other children played their songs. When it was Hugh's turn, he watched as the little lad bounced happily up to the piano, squirming happily on the bench as he began to play. He had moved on to songs that were a bit more difficult, and yet he sounded just as wonderful as he had when he'd been playing Three Blind Mice for the seven hundredth time.  
  
By the time the recital was over, Harry could taste a very small bit of blood in his mouth from where he'd been biting on his lip, and he got up to go talk to Louis, but halfway over to the snack table he was topped by a very excited Hugh.  
  
He ran into him, hugging him tightly around the legs, and Harry patted him on the head gently.  
  
"Hey, buddy."  
  
"Hi, Mr. Harry!" Hugh greeted happily. "That was a real pretty song you played. I liked it lots and lots."  
  
"Thanks, Hugh." Harry smiled down at him. "I really liked your song as well."  
  
Hugh beamed up at him, "Mr. Harry?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Was that song for Mr. Tomlinson?"  
  
Harry bit his lip again, and winced a little, because it was starting to get a little sensitive, "C'mere." He said, sitting down on the cold stone that covered half of the back garden and patting his lap.  
  
Hugh climbed on, scrambling around to face Harry, and looking at him intently, his large, bright eyes wide and expectant.  
  
"That was for Mr. Tomlinson, yeah. He doesn't know yet, I'm gonna tell him, but for now we've got to keep this our little secret, yeah?"  
  
Hugh nodded quickly, "Do you love him?"  
  
"Dunno about love, buddy. I definitely fancy him quite a bit, though. But I just don't think I love him quite yet."  
  
"But you will?"  
  
"If he'll let me." Harry sighed softly.  
  
Hugh grabbed Harry's face in his hands, looking him dead in the eyes, "He will."  
  
And with that, Hugh was getting up off his lap and skipping off to find his parents.  
  
Harry sighed, getting up off the ground. He really hoped Hugh was right.  
  
Harry spotted Louis talking to a few parents, and decided to wait until everyone else had gone home to speak to him. The conversation that would follow would most likely be one best had in private.  
  
He watched as everyone began filing out, thanking Louis for another great recital. Even Hugh and his parents didn't stay long, and Harry saw Hugh dragging them out, and he chalked it up to the fact that Hugh was very receptive, and he probably knew that Harry needed some time alone with Louis, and he wanted them to have it.  
  
Once everyone had left the back garden aside from Louis and himself, Harry made his way over to the older lad, who was cleaning up at the snack table.  
  
"D'you need help cleaning anything up?"  
  
Louis jumped a little, "Christ. I didn't notice you were still here. You scared me."  
  
"Sorry." Harry shrugged. "But really. You need my help?"  
  
"No, I'm sure I can...Actually, yeah." Louis shook his head. "Yeah, I really could use some help honestly."  
  
Harry nodded.  
  
Louis grabbed the snacks, and Harry grabbed the table, and they headed up to Louis' flat, setting everything inside, and then they went back for the piano and bench. They both had wheels, so they weren't too difficult to move at all.  
  
As they made their way up to Louis' flat again, Louis finally spoke, "That song was lovely, Harry."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Yeah." Louis nodded. "I don't see why you decided to learn that one instead of the one I asked you to learn. It's quite a bit more difficult."  
  
"Not more difficult to me." Harry said. "It's my favorite song. I know it by heart. I could tell if I was messing up and figure out what I needed to do to fix it."  
  
Louis shrugged, and they arrived at his floor, making their way into his flat with the piano and bench, and Louis pushed them into place on the far side of his little sitting area where his telly and sofa were.  
  
"And I think you know why I wanted to play that one." Harry added.  
  
"Do I?"  
  
Harry nodded.  
  
"It was for me, wasn't it?" Louis asked softly, sitting down on the piano bench, while Harry stayed standing by the door. "You wanted to sing it to me?"  
  
Harry nodded slowly, "Yeah. I wanted you to talk to me again. I didn't want things to stay so awful between us, and I wanted us to be able to talk about what happened last month, and-" Harry cut himself off, shrugging.  
  
Louis slowly approached him, "What if I don't want to talk about what happened last month?" Harry was about to argue, but Louis continued. "What if I just want to...?"  
  
Louis' eyes had flickered down to Harry's lips, and before he really knew what was happening, their mouths were pressed together. Harry tilted his head to the side a little, deepening the kiss just slightly, his lips moving swiftly along with Louis', and his hands coming down to grip Louis' hips, while Louis tangled his hands in Harry's hair.  
  
It was better than Harry had ever imagined. Louis' lips were warm against his, despite the fact that they'd been out in the cold for a few hours now, and his fingers were soft and gentle in Harry's hair, and there were sparks running through Harry's whole body, and he never wanted to stop kissing Louis ever again.  
  
But he was starting to have trouble breathing, and so he pulled back reluctantly, panting a bit and trying to catch his breath.  
  
"I'm so sorry, Harry." Louis said, pecking Harry on the lips, and then nuzzling his face into the crook of Harry's neck, where Harry couldn't help but notice that he fit perfectly.  
  
"It's alright, Lou."  
  
"It's not alright." Louis said softly. "I've been a complete twat this whole time. I've been hurting you and I've been hurting myself, and I'm sorry, Harry. I just...I didn't want to feel this way about a student. I didn't think I should feel this way about a student, and so I was trying to hold it back. But I can't anymore, Harry."  
  
"So don't." Harry said, taking Louis' face gently in his hands, and tilting it up so they were looking at each other, before leaning in and pressing a gentle kiss to Louis' lips.  
  
They kissed slowly, one of Harry's hands still resting on Louis' cheek, and Louis' hands tangling more properly in Harry's hair.  
  
Harry isn't sure when or how it happened, but at some point, they ended up on Louis' couch, both of their jackets off, with Louis placed firmly on Harry's lap, and Harry's hands on his hips, holding him in place, and Louis' hands still tangled in his hair.  
  
The kiss was growing deeper and deeper every minute, and suddenly Harry felt Louis' tongue trailing over his bottom lip, and he opened his mouth just a bit, and gasped softly as Louis slipped his tongue inside, exploring the inside of Harry's mouth. Harry could feel a happy warmth gathering in his stomach, and Louis tugged on his hair, causing him to let out a soft whimper into Louis' mouth.  
  
Harry pulled back quickly, breathing heavily, "Lou, you've gotta stop or I'm gonna get-"  
  
"It's okay." Louis said softly, rolling his hips down into Harry's, and Harry could feel that Louis' cock was already beginning to get hard.  
  
Harry groaned softly, and dove back into the kiss, a new intensity alight in his whole body, sending a tingling sensation running through him as he moved his lips eagerly against Louis', nibbling on Louis' bottom lip, causing the older lad to whine harshly, tugging on his hair.  
  
Harry bucked his hips up into Louis', and before he knew it, Louis was shoving him back so that he was lying down on the sofa, and Louis settled himself on top of him, rutting his hips down into Harry's. Harry could feel his own cock growing harder with every thrust, as well as Louis', and he let out a soft moan.  
  
Louis began kissing and biting all along Harry's jaw and neck, pulling his shirt down just a little, and sucking a mark into his collarbone.  
  
"Oh, fuck." Harry breathed out softly.  
  
Louis only sucked harder on the spot after that, rutting his hips down, rubbing his and Harry's erections together, causing Harry to let out a number of soft little whimpers and cries and moans. He gripped the back of Louis' shirt, squeezing his eyes shut and focusing on the feeling of Louis' mouth on his skin.  
  
After a while, Louis finally pulled off, kissing the mark he'd made, and kissing his way back up to Harry's lips, pecking them once and then muttering softly, "M'close." He let out a high pitched little whine as he rutted against Harry once more. "Sort of embarrassing, really, but I'm really close. Fuck."  
  
Harry bucked his hips up into Louis' hard, and the older boy whimpered softly, "Say that again."  
  
"Say what again?" Louis asked.  
  
"Fuck. Say fuck again."  
  
"I can't just..." Louis was breathing heavily now, nearly gasping. "You've gotta give me a reason to say it."  
  
Harry trailed a few soft kisses along Louis' jaw, both of them thrusting their hips, their cocks rubbing together hard, and Harry ran his teeth along Louis' earlobe, sucking on it gently, and Louis groaned softly.  
  
"Mm, fuck."  
  
Harry let Louis' earlobe slip from his mouth, feeling quite proud of himself and kissing along Louis' jawline, back to his lips, and connecting their mouths.  
  
They kissed hard, their cocks rubbing together quickly. And suddenly, without any warning, Louis' hips were stuttering against his, and he was whimpering desperately into Harry's mouth, coming in his trousers. It didn't take long until Harry was coming as well, letting out a soft groan, his head falling back, hitting the arm of the couch.  
  
After a few moments, Louis stood up, straightening his shirt out a bit, still breathing heavily.  
  
"I, um. I should go." Harry said. "Mum's been out running errands but she's probably home by now and wondering where I am."  
  
Louis nodded, looking a little dazed.  
  
"You should get yourself cleaned up." He pecked Louis on the lips. "I'll text you? I'm allowed to text you again, right?"  
  
"Of course. I mean, we just...Yeah, of course you are."  
  
"Okay. Talk to you later, Louis."  
  
"Sure, yeah."  
  
Harry smiled, putting on his jacket and leaving the flat, heading back home as quickly as possible. The cold February air causing the stickiness in his pants to become highly uncomfortable very quickly.  
  
When he got home, his mum was in the kitchen, and he could smell food.  
  
"Dinner's ready, love. Come eat."  
  
"Yeah, okay. Be right there, mum. Gonna go wash up first."  
  
Harry ran up the stairs, stripping out of his trousers and pants and putting on fresh ones, brushing his hair and making sure he looked respectable before making his way downstairs.  
  
He sat down across from his mum, and she served him a plate of food.  
  
"How was the recital, Harry?"  
  
"Brilliant." Harry beamed.  
  
"Yeah? You had a good time?"  
  
"I did, yeah."  
  
Harry tried not to blush as he thought back on what had just happened not more than twenty minutes ago. He wasn't quite sure how he and Louis had gone from not talking to coming in their trousers on Louis' couch in the span of a few hours, but he couldn't say he was upset that it had happened. It had been sort of amazing, really.  
  
"I'm glad."  
  
000  
  
Louis went and changed into a fresh pair of trousers and pants, and then set to work making himself a sandwich. Once he was done, he went and sat on the sofa, turning on the telly, but not really watching it. He sat there in a daze, with his sandwich on his plate sitting in his lap as he stared ahead, not really focusing on anything.  
  
His brain was running a mile a minute. He wasn't sure how what had just happened had happened. But he couldn't really say he regretted it. He'd wanted Harry for a long time, and Harry wanted him, too. And he'd sung him such a beautiful song, it wasn't as if Louis could just turn him down again. At one point things were either going to break and Harry would get a new teacher, and they'd never see each other again. Or, well, this would happen.  
  
And Louis was quite glad it had gone this way and not the other.  
  
He couldn't imagine never speaking to Harry again. Harry had become so important to him, really, and he'd been a fool to hold off for this long.  
  
They fit together nicely, and it felt good to finally just give in to his feelings. He felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Felt like he could breathe again.  
  
He wasn't really sure what he and Harry were, but he supposed they'd figure that out together. All he knew was that Harry's song had been lovely, and kissing him had been nice, and making him come had been amazing, and he wanted all of that to keep happening.  
  
His phone went off, and he grabbed it off the table.  
  
To Louis: Hi.  
  
Louis smiled down at his phone.  
  
To Harry: Hey. Thank you.  
  
To Louis: For?  
  
To Harry: The song.  
  
To Louis: Oh. You're welcome.  
  
Louis raised an eyebrow at his phone.  
  
To Harry: "Oh"? Had you been expecting a thank you for something else?  
  
To Louis: Dunno. I seem to recall something interesting happening on your couch, but maybe it would be silly to thank me for that. It probably would be. Never mind. Anyway, I'm glad you liked the song. It's my favorite and I just...I hoped you'd like it. I thought it was a good fit for us, I guess?  
  
Louis chuckled a little at his phone. Harry seemed like maybe he was nervous.  
  
To Harry: Hey, no. Thanks for that, too. I just...I really appreciated the song. Guess it helped snap me out of my twat-ish mindset a bit, hm? And it was a good fit, I think. I really loved it, Harry. You've got a beautiful voice.  
  
To Louis: I do?  
  
To Harry: Have a beautiful voice? Absolutely. I wish I could sing like that.  
  
To Louis: I bet you can.  
  
To Harry: Nah, not nearly as well as you. Hey, Harry?  
  
To Louis: Yes?  
  
To Harry: What exactly are we?  
  
Louis bit his lip as he pressed send.  
  
To Louis: What d'you mean?  
  
To Harry: You know what I mean.  
  
To Louis: I guess I do, yeah. But I don't know the answer, really? It's not just up to me.  
  
To Harry: You're right..  
  
To Louis: Did you want to, um? Did you want to maybe go out tomorrow afternoon? Tea? A film? Lunch? Or...Something?  
  
Louis beamed at his phone, his heart skipping a beat.  
  
To Harry: Harry Styles, are you nervous about asking me out? I sense some nerves. :p But yeah. I'd like that. I'd really like that.  
  
To Louis: Oh, shove off. Tomorrow it is then?  
  
To Harry: Tomorrow it is.  
  
To Louis: Okay.  
  
To Harry: Okay.  
  
To Harry: Oh, and Harry?  
  
To Louis: Yeah, Lou?  
  
To Harry: I really enjoyed earlier. And I really am sorry about how much of a twat I've been.  
  
To Louis: It's fine. All is forgiven. Just don't do it again, please? It'd be a bit of a dick move to start that up again now that I've taken the time to sing a song for you.  
  
To Harry: I won't. I promise. It wasn't fair to either of us.  
  
To Louis: You can say that again. I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?  
  
To Harry: Yeah. Goodnight, Harry.  
  
To Louis: 'Night, Louis.  
  
Louis smiled, setting down his phone and picking up his sandwich, butterflies fluttering wildly in his stomach as he nibbled away at his sandwich, his brain finally settling down.  
  
He knew that soon he'd start worrying about tomorrow, but for now, his mind was finally at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure that the song I used in this chapter is a tiny bit cliche for Larry fics, but sometimes cliche is good.


End file.
